EPOCHS 



OF 



CHURCH HISTORY 



REV. A. DALTON, D. D. 

Rector of St. Stephen's Church, Portland, Maine 



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1 



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PORTLAND, ME. 

BROWN THURSTON COMPANY 

1894 



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Copyright, 1894 



CONTENTS 



21 

28 

35 
40 

47 

53 
63 

7i 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Preparation of the World for the Gospel, 9 

II. Relation of the Jewish Church to the Chris- 
tian, ...*.. 14 

III. The Place of Christ in Church History, 

IV. His Rejection by the Jews, 
V. His Rejection by the Jews, 

VI. Phases of Faith, ..... 
VII. The Three Eras, .... 

VIII. The Primitive Period. — The Age of the Apos- 
tles. — St. Paul, .... 
IX. The Primitive Period. — Age of Persecutions, 
X. The Nicene Age, .... 

XI. The Papal Period (Hildebrand), . . 86 

XII. The Papal Period (Innocent III, Boniface 

VIII, Julius II), 95 

XIII. Reformers before the Reformation. The 

Dawn that Preceded the Day, . . 102 

XIV. The Reformation, . - 
XV. Churches of the Reformation, 

XVI. The Eighteenth Century, . 
XVII. The Nineteenth Century, 
XVIII. The Church of the Future, 
The Apostles' Creed. 

A Few Words on Creeds, . . , 

Our Belief in God, ..... 
The Incarnation, . . . - 

Christ's Passion, Death, and Descent into Hades, 
Christ's Resurrection, .... 
The Holy Ghost, • 

The Church, ..... 

The Forgiveness of Sins, . . . .183 

The Resurrection and the Life Everlasting, . 187 

Church Unity, ..... 192 



108 
117 
124 
132 

138 

150 
r 53 
157 
161 
164 
i73 
i77 



The study of history is now regarded as second to no 
other in importance and educating power to "those who 
would know." The present is the product of the past, 
and the future will be largely determined by the present. 
And no department of history is more interesting or 
instructive, than the history of the Christian Church. It 
has been the favorite study of Gladstone, the foremost 
English speaking man of our time, as it was of Macaulay 
and Melbourne, leaders of modern liberalism in state 
affairs. That the subject should have received so little 
attention among us until recently, is indeed lamentable, 
inasmuch as the neglect of it has been a fruitful source 
of narrow notions and provincial Philistinism. But a 
new and happier era has dawned upon us in this, as in so 
many other respects. 

The following pages are offered as an impartial contri- 
bution to the cause of Historical Christianity, not so 
many as to discourage, nor yet so few as to make but 
little, or no distinct impression upon the reader's mind. 
The author has aimed to be candid and catholic, guided 
by the good old rule : In essenstials, unity ; in non- 
essentials, liberty; in all things, charity. 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY 



CHAPTER I. 

PREPARATION OF THE WORLD FOR THE GOSPEL. 

We are sometimes asked why the religion of 
Christ was reserved to so late a period in the world's 
history, why the nations were left to wander in dark- 
ness, error and sin? This is only another form of 
the question, why sin was permitted to enter the 
world, and death by sin ? In other words, it is a 
part of the greater question as to the origin and 
prevalence of evil in the world. Strictly speaking, 
these and kindred questions belong to the province 
of philosophy. The gospel is etymologically and in 
fact, God's good news to a sinful world and a lost 
race, revealing the means of recovery. As such, it 
does not directly concern itself with the problem of 
evil in its origin, but with the more important, per- 
tinent, and practical problem of its removal. 

But as to the era of Christianity, it is not diffi- 
cult to show how truly the apostle spake, when he 
declared that " in the fullness of time God sent forth 
His Son." In all the works of God there is a cer- 
tain correspondence and harmony : thus, the lower 
generally precedes the higher, and time is a great 
element and essential factor. Many were the ages, 



10 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

and marvelous the changes, which prepared the way 
for the introduction of the human race on earth, in 
any form, and in the simplest conditions of its exist- 
ence. Man was "a mighty hunter" before he lived 
in the pastoral state, and was driven to this by the 
failure of game ; afterward, and by the operation of 
the same law, he added agriculture; and to agricul- 
ture, manufactures ; and to manufactures, commerce ; 
and to commerce, civilization, including all the ele- 
vating and refining influences of modern states and 
society. The changes in the life of our western 
Indians present the phases through which the whole 
race has passed, and their history is, therefore, a 
picture of all human history. 

Mankind, in the use of their proper faculties, grew 
in many directions. They built great cities, founded 
mighty empires, invented alphabets, and cultivated 
to a high degree of perfection, literature and the 
arts. But good living was the very particular in 
which man failed. It is true that they could see 
and approve the right, but they pursued the wrong. 
Moral evil, wrong-doing, was so wide-spread in the 
ages immediately preceding the gospel, that the 
foundations of society were undermined, the pillars 
were shaken and tottered to their fall. 

In other respects, events were so ordered as to 
prepare the way for the new and higher type of life 
which was to be introduced by the movement on the 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. I I 

face of society and in the hearts of men of the same 
Divine Spirit, which, brooding over primeval dark- 
ness, said, " Let there be light." Physical powers 
preceded mental, and mental, moral. The mental 
was about as far as man could go of himself, and 
even on that line he did not, and could not, walk 
upright. The. Assyrians and Egyptians could build 
cities and send forth armies. The Phoenicians could 
invent letters, and the Greeks, art. Rome reduced 
the world to her sway, but could not govern herself. 
But the Greek language furnished a fit vehicle to 
convey the ideas of Christianity, which no other 
existing language could adequately express. In like 
manner Rome reduced chaos to order in the political 
relations of mankind, and so opened the world to the 
preaching of the gospel and the planting of churches. 
In the olden time, "mountains interposed made ene- 
mies of nations," which were always at war with 
each other. As long as this was regarded as the 
normal condition of things, general intercourse and 
intercommunication were impossible, and without 
these, the gospel could not be " preached in all the 
world and to every creature." 

The dispersion of the Jews, too, favored the dis- 
semination of religious knowledge in such a form 
and degree as prepared the most advanced races to 
receive the gospel. And it is precisely on these lines 
that the gospel has advanced from that day to this, 



12 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

and will advance to the end. By general laws, God 
educated the race, not all, but parts of it, up to the 
point where the reception of Christian ideas be- 
comes, humanly speaking, possible. Then in the 
order and by the will of Providence, the gospel is 
preached to and received by them. The leaven cast 
into each city, nation and race, works and will work 
till the whole is leavened. And this work will go on 
till Christ comes the second time to raise the dead 
and judge the world in righteousness. 

This sketch is so brief, too brief to admit of devel- 
oping the points already made, that, in concluding 
it, we must with still greater brevity touch on two 
others often enforced from the pulpit, viz. : the sense 
of sin and guilt which the gospel of Christ alone 
can remove, our dread of the extinction of conscious 
existence at death, and our consequent longing for 
immortality, which the gospel alone brings to light. 
The world by its wisdom knew nothing of these 
things, and never could have known them. They are 
beyond its ken. By the gospel they stand or fall, 
and we and all men are shut up to the gospel for 
the fulfillment of our highest hopes, as well as the 
removal of our deepest fears. Despair on all these 
points had settled down upon the ancient world. 
The educated classes were skeptical in all things, 
and the wealthy led dissolute lives. The masses 
were sunk in superstition and ignorance, the dupes 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 1 3 

of charlatans and pretenders to supernatural knowl- 
edge and power. Unrest and despair of deliverance 
were well-nigh universal. The hour before the dawn 
was the darkest. When all hope of human help had 
proved vain, " the day-star" from on high shone 
forth, and soon the Sun of Righteousness arose with 
healing in its rays, upon a world of pagan darkness. 
And to-day the light of the gospel shines with in- 
creasing luster. " Its beams upon the nations rise ; 
they rise, but never set." 



CHAPTER II. 

RELATION OF THE JEWISH CHURCH TO THE 
CHRISTIAN. 

The point of the preceding chapter was, that in 
Chureh, as in other histories, there are epochs and 
eras, each of which is gradually developed from that 
which preceded it. It is equally true that Christi- 
anity itself is a development from Judaism, not 
indeed, on a natural, but on a supernatural plane. 
All attempts to explain the origin of Christianity on 
natural principles, as something evolved from the 
human consciousness, have signally failed, and ever 
must fail. The gospel is God's good news to man, 
.first fully announced by Christ and His apostles, but 
partially disclosed in the earlier times by the proph- 
ets. God spake to the fathers by the prophets, but 
to us He has spoken by His Son. " The law came 
by Moses." First, the moral law, which Moses 
summed up in ten commandments, and Christ in 
two. Then, the ceremonial law, a part of which was 
of local and tribal significance, and a part, and that 
the greater part, both centered and culminated in 
Christ, at whose crucifixion the veil of the temple 
was rent in twain, signifying that the veil was re- 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 1 5 

moved, that the old law had departed, and that the 
new law, fulfilled by Christ, was then and there 
ushered in under " the New Covenant " signed and 
sealed by the Savior's blood. This is the general 
statement. But beyond this, the inquiry always 
arises, " What is the precise value of the Old Testa- 
ment to us ? " How are we to regard it ? Is it still 
binding ? If it is in any degree, how far ? And is 
it incumbent on Christians, as such, to defend the 
ancient law and the Jewish Scriptures? The best, 
the conclusive answer to these questions is given in 
the epistle to the Hebrews. That epistle is a part 
of the canon (Inspired Scriptures) of the New Cov- 
enant, or Testament, and it is entirely devoted to a 
discussion of these questions, which arose in the 
apostolic age, and demanded a satisfactory solution 
then, as they do now. The agitation of this subject 
was inevitable among both Jews and Gentiles. Sal- 
vation is confessedly of the Jews. To them, in 
olden time, were committed the sacred oracles, con- 
taining a revelation of the Divine purposes and 
promises of mercy to man. To the Jews, Moses 
seemed the great Master whom they themselves were 
bound to obey, and, equally, all others admitted to 
the rites and privileges of the Jewish faith. 

But Moses himself testified to the Jews, •-* A 
prophet shall the Lord your God raise up like unto 
me ; him shall you hear in all things." And not 



1 6 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

Moses only, but all the prophets, foretold the coming 
of a new and brighter day, the sealing of a new and 
better covenant, and the absolute authority of the 
future Messiah, or Anointed One. Christ having 
come, and declared by His resurrection to be the 
Son of God, claimed and exercised this absolute 
authority over all who called him Lord. To the 
Christian, whether of Jewish or Gentile birth, Christ 
is the Son, the first-born and heir of all things, by 
whom all things were made, and in whom they con- 
sist ; i.e., all things center in Him, and He is the 
source of all authority and power in heaven and on 
earth. Moses was but a servant in the household 
of faith, of which Christ is the ruler and head. Of 
course, it follows from this that, if on any points, 
Judaism is or appears to be at variance with Christi- 
anity, Judaism must give way. And the reason is 
obvious. Judaism was a local and transient phenom- 
enon, Christianity a universal and permanent princi- 
ple. Judaism was for the Jews, Christianity is for 
all men. Judaism was for a day, Christianity is for 
all time. In its very structure, the Jewish religion 
was necessarily limited and superficial, a temporary 
expedient, which, having accomplished the end of its 
appointment, was no longer to be maintained as a 
part of the Divine economy in the great scheme of 
human redemption. The sacrifices of the law were 
no longer to be offered, nor the high priest to enter 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 1 7 

into the most holy place ; for Christ had by His own 
blood offered, once for all, " a sacrifice, oblation and 
satisfaction, full, perfect and sufficient for the sins 
of the whole world." 

It appears, then, that while the Old Testament (or 
Covenant) preceded the New, it preceded only to 
prepare the way for the New. Though of higher 
antiquity, it was of lower authority. As in nature, 
so in grace, the inferior types, the lowest orders ap- 
pear first, and are followed by the higher. It is 
neither irreverent nor far from the truth to say, that 
in all God's works the forces He creates and applies 
have to serve an apprenticeship before they are set 
free to do the higher work for which they were des- 
tined from the first. In God's plan, the preparatory 
stage seems to be necessary to the prepared. The 
Jews were " a people prepared of God " in compari- 
son with the pagan world, and Christians are, in like 
manner, compared with the Jews. " The prophets 
prophesied until John, since then the kingdom of 
God is preached," and all men are invited to enter it, 
that therein they may richly enjoy the highest bless- 
ings which God hath prepared for them that love 
Him. 

Nor is there any respect of persons with God, but 
in every nation he that serveth and loveth, is accepted 
of him. And let it never be forgotten that the foun- 
dation of all these blessings is laid in the gospel of 



1 8 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

His Son, "in whom it pleased the Father that all 
fullness should dwell." He is the Head of God's 
Household of Saints, the Corner Stone of the living 
Temple, in which assemble all who " worship the 
Father in spirit and in truth," the King of Zion, the 
city of God, reigning in the hearts of all who obey 
the gospel. 

Thus far, we have considered the Jewish Church 
or Covenant from the standpoint of the epistle to the 
Hebrews, which is, and ever must be, final and con- 
clusive with all who profess and call themselves Chris- 
tians. But what answer shall we give to those who 
doubt or deny the inspiration of the prophets. 

Let them compare Abraham's knowledge of God, 
with the abominable idolatries which prevailed in all 
the world when Abraham lived. Was Abraham by 
nature so superior to all other men, or was he called 
of God from his father's house and his early home 
beyond the flood ? Again, compare the Mosaic law 
embodied in the Ten Commandments, with the eth- 
ics of Moses' contemporaries, whether in Egypt, 
Assyria or Greece. Compare David's Psalms with 
the poems of Homer, as to the Divine nature and at- 
tributes, — the prophecies of Isaiah with the ethical 
speculations of the Greeks, the most gifted of man- 
kind. Only by Divine inspiration can we account 
for such marvelous differences in favor of the Jews, 
" a stiff-necked and stubborn people." 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. IO, 

On the other hand, it must be admitted that the 
highest standard of the Old Testament falls below 
the requirements of the new law, i. e., the gospel. 
The tone of David's Psalms, in certain particulars, 
e. g., as apparent indulgence of personal resentment 
and anger. It seems hardly possible that any one 
can be insensible to this disparity, or would deny it, 
unless hampered by a theory of inspiration which 
assumes that it must always be the same in kind and 
degree. Dismissing, then, all theories, let us accept 
the facts which compel us to recognize the rays of 
heavenly light — the enlightenment which God alone 
could give, but which He was pleased to give, not 
without measure to the prophets, but only to His 
dearly beloved Son, who is also the Sun of righteous- 
ness, shining by His own pure light, unmixed with 
any degree of darkness, and with perfect healing in 
His rays. 

The relation of the Jewish Church to the Chris- 
tian was similar to the relation of the colonies to the 
United States. The United States, as such, are not 
to be confounded with the colonies, though derived 
from them. But superior as are the states, they can- 
not be understood without a careful study of the 
colonial period, which preceded the Declaration of 
Independence and the War of the Revolution. The 
colonies became independent states with an inde- 
pendent existence, a new character and a higher ca- 



20 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

reer. The old constitutions and laws were no longer 
operative or binding as colonial enactments. If some 
features of them are recognized, it is because they 
are incorporated into the new constitutions of the 
several states, and that of the United States. 

So when the Word was made Flesh and dwelt 
among us, a new life was breathed into the New Cov- 
enant, and the old dispensation was "ready to depart 
and vanish away." 



CHAPTER III. 

THE PLACE OF CHRIST IN CHURCH HISTORY. 

The Advent of the Lord is the central fact in his- 
tory, and draws a distinct division line between the 
ancient pagan, and the modern Christian, world. All 
that is distinctive, and most that is desirable, in mod- 
ern society, is derived from His gospel. Whatever 
is most elevated in man, or refined in woman, is 
traceable to the influence of the Christian religion. 
The estate of matrimony, the duty of parents, the 
docility of children, parental affection and filial love, 
the charities of the rich and the contentment of the 
poor, the relief of the sick and needy, popular educa- 
tion and political rights, — all these things and others 
related to them, are indebted to Christianity either 
for their existence, or for their stability, purification 
and perpetuity. Hospitals for the sick, homes for 
the poor, for children and for the aged, asylums for 
the insane and idiotic, municipal and state appropria- 
tions for the systematic suppression of the sources of 
poverty, ignorance, vice and crime, were unknown to 
the world before Christ, but have sprung up like 
flowers along the paths made by the missionaries of 
the gospel. 



22 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

That we really owe to the gospel this higher con- 
ception of the duty of the favored to the unfortunate 
and even criminal class, is evident from the consid- 
eration, that, while these ideas prevail in every Chris- 
tian country, they are as remote from all existing, as 
they were from all ancient, pagan communities. 
Wherever truly preached and truly received, the gos- 
pel has proved itself the power of God to the break- 
ing down of the kingdom of sin, Satan, and death, 
even in the present evil world ; while it, and it alone, 
has "brought life and immortality to light," that 
blessed hope which lights our earthly life as a day- 
star from on high. Without this hope, life itself is a 
doubtful blessing, seeing we are encompassed by so 
many trials and temptations, and exposed to so many 
distresses which lead to, and end in, death. A man 
who does not extend his views beyond the present 
sensible world, cannot raise himself above the inter- 
ests, the vexations, the pleasures and the passions 
which naturally engross and enslave the soul. All 
his thoughts are confined to the narrow circle of a 
month or a year, and he cannot open his mind to 
those impressions and aspirations which are based on 
the hope and " power of an endless life." Faith in a 
future world, if sincerely cherished, cannot fail to ex- 
pand our views, elevate our aims and purify our de- 
sires, the affections of the heart "from which are the 
issues of life." This glorious hope of a happy im- 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 23 

mortality, is indissolubly bound up with the assur- 
ances of Him who overcame death in His own per- 
son, and who showed Himself " the resurrection and 
the life." He also taught a doctrine of perfect moral- 
ity, and a pure, spiritual religion, in opposition to a 
religion of endless rites and unreasonable ceremonies. 
The difficulties we encounter in our efforts to esti- 
mate the exalted character of Christ, arise, in part, 
from its incomparable elevation. It is high, we can- 
not attain unto it. But the higher we can raise our- 
selves, the more clearly shall we be able to discover 
its divine lineaments, though we shall never be able 
to comprehend it fully. Another serious obstacle is 
our familiarity with the letter of the gospel. Our 
situation in this respect is analogous to that of per- 
sons who live amidst sublime, natural scenery, waters 
like Niagara, or mountains like the Alps. At such 
sights as these, a stranger is fixed in exquisite delight. 
All his thoughts are engrossed and his emotions 
absorbed in contemplation of the scene. He feels 
that no language could describe its beauty, or image 
its sublimity. But those who have lived long in the 
immediate neighborhood of such objects, generally 
survey them without emotion, and even without 
thought. And such is too commonly the case with 
us in respect to the originality, the benevolence, the 
moral grandeur and sublimity of our Savior's charac- 
ter. If we could shake off the torpor which benumbs 



24 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

our sensibility, and rouse ourselves to perception and 
feeling, this character would appear far different to 
us. 

Though He lived in an age when religion was sup- 
posed to consist in superstitious rites and vain ex- 
ternals, an age when men thought it more essential 
in the sight of God that the hands should be washed, 
than that the heart should be cleansed ; when, in 
brief, the prevalent system of religious faith had 
become a complication of irrational dogmas, folly and 
falsehood, we see the Savior as far removed from 
such conceptions, as light is from darkness, or heaven 
from earth. As a religious teacher, He penetrated 
to the seat of the affections in man, and touched the 
springs of human actions. Hence He laid more 
stress on purity of thought than on outward appear- 
ances. He inculcated nothing which in the light of 
modern science can be pronounced unreasonable or 
untrue. He never courted applause or popularity 
by accommodating His views to the prejudices of His 
hearers. He never favored the purposes of bigots, 
or countenanced the pretensions of hypocrites. On 
the contrary, He stripped them of their disguises, 
denounced their superstitious observances, and in- 
veighed against their iniquitous perversions of the 
Scriptures. 

The benevolence of Jesus was a trait of His charac- 
ter no less conspicuous. As it was unlike anything 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 25 

ever conceived before, so it has ever since remained 
unapproached. Though capable of the strongest 
personal and private attachments, His affections were 
as universal as man, and His beneficence an exact 
expression of them. A benevolence comprehending 
all nations and times was something entirely new. 
The founders of previous religions and philosophies 
had never looked beyond the boundaries of the king- 
doms in which they lived. The most venerated 
teachers of antiquity despaired of elevating the 
masses of society, or of enfranchising their minds 
from degrading superstitions. But our Savior, 
throughout His ministry, made this the principal 
end of His activities. Nor was His compassion a 
barren sentiment. It did not evaporate in unavail- 
ing sighs and expressions of sympathy, but was 
practically exercised in rescuing a beloved daughter 
from the dominion of death, in calling back to life the 
son of a poor widow, the staff and support of her 
declining years, in summoning from the very grave a 
deceased brother, and restoring him alive to his 
weeping sisters. 

Nor was the Savior insensible to the lesser woes 
and griefs of man. He could pity the sorrows of 
Bartimeus, poor and blind — the distraction of the 
lunatic, the grief of the Centurion, whose favorite 
servant was sick, the maternal anguish of the Syro- 
Ehcenician woman, and the despair of the impotent 



26 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

man, who, when the water was troubled, had no one 
to put him into the healing pool. How inimitable, 
too, the simplicity and pathos with which the evan- 
gelists record these touching instances of the com- 
passion of our Lord. Take, for example, that relat- 
ing to the widow of Nain. 

And not long afterward, when persecution had 
followed Him relentlessly from day to day, when 
wickedness had employed all its weapons against 
Him, its pride and cunning, its malice and envy, had 
accused Him of being a wine-bibber, a friend of pub- 
licans and sinners, a blasphemer and an emissary of 
Satan, — when His life, passed in bitterness and sor- 
row, was drawing to its close, and He knew that it 
would be terminated by an ignominious and cruel 
death, we see Him standing on an eminence which 
overlooked Jerusalem, and gazing upon the Holy 
City, He weeps over it, and with inexpressible ten- 
derness exclaims, " O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou 
that killest the prophets and stonest them who are 
sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy 
children together, even as a hen gathereth her chick- 
ens under her wings, and ye would not ! " 

This affecting passage not only reveals the feeling 
of deep commiseration which our Savior had for His 
deluded persecutors, but may be cited as illustrative 
of the dignity of His character, a dignity which is 
without example or approach in the lives of the most 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 27 

illustrious of mankind, and is all the more remark- 
able from the contrast it presents to the lowliness 
of His outward condition. Other examples of this 
superhuman dignity of Christ, are furnished by the 
narrative of His interview with the woman of Sama- 
ria at Jacob's well, in His conversation with Nico- 
demus, in the discourse with the Jews about the 
bread of life, in the consolatory discourse to His dis- 
ciples, recorded in the fourteenth and fifteenth chap- 
ters of St. John, in His replies to the interrogations 
of Pilate, and especially, when expiring on the cross, 
He uttered those remarkable words to the penitent 
thief, "This day shalt thou be with me in paradise." 
Indeed, from first to last, however difficult and trying 
the situations in which He was placed, our Lord 
never spoke a word, or performed an action, unworthy 
of the Son of God. 

Whence, then, we ask, had this man this wisdom 
and these mighty works ? What wonder that great 
David, being a prophet, and so able to foresee and 
foretell the future greatness of this his greater Son, 
should call Him " Lord," and declare that His soul 
should not be kept in hades, nor His flesh see cor- 
ruption. 



CHAPTER IV. 

HIS REJECTION BY THE JEWS. 

In all history we do not find a nation so completely 
possessed by an idea, as the Jews were with the ex- 
pectation of a Messiah, of whose coming into the 
world Moses and the prophets had spoken, and by 
whom Israel was to arise and shake off her for- 
eign yoke and heathen rule. She, who then sat 
solitary among the nations, was in God's good time 
to become mistress of all, in a far higher sense than 
the sovereignty which Rome exercised over Judea, 
Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and all lesser Asia. 

The Jews' familiarity with Messianic ideas, then* 
was as great as ours. But their situation differed 
from ours in this, that the range of their thoughts 
and sympathies was far narrower. Their only litera- 
ture had this for its constant theme, in which Mes- 
siah was more prominent as the central figure, than 
the hero of any epic. Not only their canonical, but 
many of their apocryphal, books were full of it. 
Their traditions also turned on this point, and their 
Targums, or commentaries, rivaled the Talmud in 
references to it. The result was the gradual, but 
sure growth of a national consciousness of a great 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 20, 

destiny to be unfolded to the eyes of the nations 
when "the Christ" should come. Add to this the 
fact that at this particular epoch there was a wide- 
spread expectation of His appearing, and we per- 
ceive at once with what interest they studied " the 
signs of the times," and with what eagerness reports 
were received and circulated which seemed to have 
any relation to the appearance of the great king, or 
the nearness of that kingdom, " to which the twelve 
tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hoped 
to come." In these words, St. Paul accurately and 
graphically describes the situation, but then as now, 
there were important differences among the people, 
both in respect to their point of view, and the degree 
of their spiritual enlightenment and consequent 
ability to apply correctly the prophecies they all pro- 
fessed to receive. How general was the expectation, 
and how profound the interest, will appear, if we 
attend to the account of John the Baptist's appear- 
ance and ministry. However great his power as a 
preacher, the multitudes would not have poured into 
the desert to hear him, unless moved by a common 
impulse. When we read, therefore, that "Jerusalem 
and all Judea, and all the region round about " went 
out to hear him, we know that it was by a common 
impulse, and that the movement was one of those 
moral upheavals, of which we have many examples in 
history, but none equal to this. Nor are we left to 



30 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

conjecture as to the origin of the movement, or the 
nature of the impelling force and guiding motive. 
The explanation appears in the testimony that " all 
men mused in their hearts whether this was Christ." 
And that all classes shared the impulse appears, 
farther, from the fact that the Scribes and Pharisees 
sent a formal deputation to inquire, " Who art thou ? " 
the thought being the same as when the Baptist 
asked Jesus, " Art thou He that should come, or 
look we for another ? " 

The Baptist declares himself as " a voice crying in 
the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord/' whose 
appearance was near. "I," said he, "baptize you 
with water unto repentance, but He will baptize you 
with fire not many days hence." " I must decrease, 
but He must increase." " He is preferred before me, 
because He was before me." " He that is from heaven 
is above all." He is " the Lamb of God that taketh 
away the sins of the world." Such was the testi- 
mony of the Baptist, the earlier and later, until he 
was cast into prison, when Jesus Himself appeared in 
the cities and villages of Galilee, and " began to 
preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand." 

But before we proceed further, let us recall some 
of the incidents of the Annunciation, and the infancy 
of Jesus — scenes dear to the great painters, and 
sacred to all Christians; 

Let us note first, the name given Him by the angel, 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 3 1 

"Jesus," because "He shall save His people from 
their sins," the keynote of the four gospels, and 
all that follows after. Next, we hear the song of the 
angel, " Behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy 
which shall be to all people." Now appear the 
heavenly host, singing, " Glory to God in the highest, 
and on earth peace, good will to men, for unto you is 
born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which 
is Christ the Lord." O, what a glorious song to be 
taken up by the, universal choir of Christ's church, 
and sung through the ages in all lands, and in every 
tongue, till all shall hear and know the joyful sound. 
Immediately follows the visit of the shepherds, 
significant of the Savior's sympathy with the poor 
and lowly, and a pledge of the amelioration His re- 
ligion would effect in their condition. After this 
come the magi to worship Him who was " born king 
of the Jews," showing spiritual insight and apprecia- 
tion of the divine dignity of " the babe of Bethlehem." 
Still more suggestive is the account of the aged and 
devout Simeon, to whom " it was revealed that he 
should not taste of death till he had seen the Lord's 
Christ." The clearness of his spiritual vision is 
made evident by his prediction that this child was 
"set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel," 
"a sign to be spoken against," and to His mother 
the warning, " yea, a sword shall pierce through thy 
own heart, also," adding, " Lord, now lettest Thou 



32 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word, 
for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation." Finally, 
Anna, the prophetess, coming in, "gave thanks also, 
and spoke of Him to all them that looked for re- 
demption in Jerusalem." Interesting as this account 
is, as relating to Simeon and Anna, it became more 
so as indicative of a party in Jerusalem whose hope 
for the consolation of Israel was based on a deep, 
spiritual apprehension of the Messiah, His character 
and mission. That the people and their rulers gen- 
erally were under the influence of other more mate- 
rial and worldly views, is certain, and easily accounted 
for by their condition as subject to a foreign yoke. 
But however signal their failure to understand their 
own Scriptures, the intensity of their interest in 
all that concerned the question is everywhere appar- 
ent, and nowhere more so than in the narratives of 
the four Evangelists. 

Rejected at Nazareth, Jesus goes to Capernaum, 
and makes it " His own city." But here, as at Naz- 
areth, the people are not slow to exclaim, " How can 
this man say, I came down from heaven, seeing we 
know His father and mother ? " Again, at Jerusalem, 
they sought to parry the force of His miracles by 
saying, " We know this man, whence He is, but when 
Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence He is," — 
substantially the same objection as in Galilee, and 
both showing how marvelous Messiah's appearing 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 33 

was to be. And so it was, but in a totally different 
sense from the Jewish idea of it. Assuming that he 
was born in Nazareth, they demanded, " Did not the 
Scriptures say that Christ cometh of the seed of 
David and from Bethlehem where David was ? " 
Hence the title given our Lord by as many as did 
believe on Him, or were impressed by His ministry, 
" Is not this the Son of David ? " " Have mercy on 
me, Thou Son of David," " Hosanna to the Son of 
David ! " " Blessed be the kingdom of our father 
David, which cometh in the name of the Lord ! " 
The Jews also held that, in some high sense, Messiah 
was " the son of God," as appears when the High 
Priest adjured Him, saying, "Tell us whether Thou 
be Christ, the Son of God?" The humiliation and 
rejection of this Christ was distinctly predicted, but 
how completely the Jews had overlooked this feature 
of the Messianic prophecies, appears from Peter's 
shrinking from the thought as entirely inadmissible, 
and worthy of instant condemnation. And when His 
death became an accomplished fact, he and the other 
disciples could only speak of Him as He whom they 
thought was to " redeem Israel." 

And so He was a Savior, mighty to save, but not 
as they looked for salvation. The salvation sought 
by the Jews of that day was a temporal salvation, a 
salvation not from the dominion of sin, its guilt and 
power, but from the dominion of Rome. Christ came 
3 



34 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

to save, not only the Jews, but Gentiles as well. And 
He came to save both Jews and Greeks by His 
death, more than by His life. Therefore He must 
be lifted up on the cross, before he could draw all 
men unto Him. 

If the proclamation of this truth startled His own 
disciples, whom He had partly instructed in it, no 
wonder that it was "a stumbling-block to the Jew 
and foolishness to the Greek." But the foolishness 
of God is wiser than men. That which the builders 
rejected became the Head-stone of the corner, and is 
now marvelous in our eyes. " What the law could 
not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, 
sending His own Son in the likeness of human flesh, 
and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." Christ 
died, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us 
to God. All who come to the Father by Him, are 
accepted through Him, and in Him. Through His 
merits they are received and restored to that Divine 
favor which they had forfeited as sinners. The spirit 
of adoption is bestowed upon them, by which they 
cry, Abba, Father. And so they are brought to the 
heavenly home from which they will stray no more, 
but forever remain among the number of God's dear 
children. 

In the beautiful words of Jeremy Taylor, " They 
shall dwell in that blessed country, into which a 
stranger never enters, and from which a friend never 
goes away." 



CHAPTER V. 

HIS REJECTION BY THE JEWS. 

The absolute authority of Christ when he should 
come, was admitted even by the heretical woman of 
Samaria. " I know that Messiah cometh who is 
called Christ ; when He cometh, He will tell us all 
things." Jesus saith unto her, " I that speak unto 
thee am He." And she believed on Him there, 
though He was as meek and lowly in His outward 
appearance, as in heart. Laboring and heavy laden, 
she came to Him, took His yoke upon her, and found 
rest to her soul. Not so the Jews. "• He came to 
His own, and His own received him not." Yet a 
few of them did receive Him, and " to them He gave 
power to become the sons of God, even to as many 
as believed in His name." Happy were they who 
saw and believed, and still more blessed are they who 
have not seen him with their mortal eyes, and yet 
believe on Him according to the words both of the 
Lord and of His holy apostle, where He says, " Whom 
having not seen ye love, and now though ye see Him 
not, yet believing ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and 
full of glory." 

Such is the blessedness of believing on Him whom 



36 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

God hath sent to be " the Savior of the world," 
whom the apostles both " heard and saw, and handled 
with their hands, of the Word of Life." This life 
was manifested to the apostles, and they have shown 
unto us that "eternal life, which was with the Father," 
and manifested to the world in the person of our 
Lord Jesus Christ. And all this, that we may have 
the fellowship with them which, even on earth, they 
had with the Father and Son. These things they 
wrote unto us, that with them also we might have 
fullness of joy, because partakers with them of "the 
fullness of Christ." If we are " grieved and bur- 
dened " with a sense of sin, " He is faithful and just 
to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all un- 
righteousness." If we pant for a higher and purer 
life, the promise is to all," " He that hath the Son, 
hath life." If we remember that " the whole crea- 
tion groaneth and travaileth in pain till now," we 
learn in the school of Christ that " the creature was 
subject to vanity not willingly, but by reason of Him 
who hath subjected the same in hope, and that it 
shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption 
into the glorious liberty of the children of God." 

Such is the scheme of the gospel displayed in the 
Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Christ 
came not Jto destroy even the old law, but to fulfill 
it, even as the artist, by unwearied labor, perfects 
the imperfect sketch he drew at first in outline. 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 37 

Heaven and earth shall pass away, but not one jot or 
tittle of the law shall fail, or of Christ's words pass 
away. He was indeed "despised and rejected of 
men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. 
But He was wounded for our transgressions and 
bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our 
peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are 
healed." Surely, then, " He bore our griefs and 
carried our sorrows. It pleased the Lord to bruise 
Him, when He made His soul an offering for sin ; 
and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He 
opened not His mouth. Yet He shall see His seed, 
He shall prolong His clays, and the pleasure of the 
Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see of the 
travail of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowl- 
edge, He shall justify many, for He bore their iniq- 
uities." In this sublime prophecy, Christ is revealed 
as the true High Priest, making His one great offer- 
ing of Himself once for all on the cross, "a full, 
perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfac- 
tion, for the sins of the whole world." And all this 
was in accordance with " the counsel and foreknowl- 
edge of God," for in prophecy He is now plainly seen 
asa" Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." 
Here, however, we are confronted with the painful 
question as to the amazing blindness of the Jews, 
and their appalling guilt, questions which we can 
neither fully evade nor explain. Their blindness is 



38 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

partly explained by the dignity and elevation of the 
character with which they had to deal, a character 
which transcended their highest conceptions, and 
which, therefore, they could not comprehend. His 
nature, too, was many-sided, and though this was 
precisely what the prophets had foretold, the Jews 
failed to appreciate the drift and scope of their own 
Scriptures. Their subjection to the Roman empire 
predisposed them to look for, and desire a temporal 
deliverance from that yoke, and so a temporal king 
to deliver them. It was this worldly temper, which 
more than a natural narrowness of their faculties, 
blinded them to the multiplied and irrefragable proofs 
of our Lord's divinity. They would not " have Him 
to reign over them," because, as a nation, they had 
ceased to look for such a redemption. This being so, 
His rejection at first by the people of Nazareth, and 
finally by the nation, was inevitable. Their failure 
to comprehend Him in His fullness was pardonable, 
but their deliberate dislike and defamation alike of 
His doctrine and discipline, admit of no apology. 
However far short they had come of comprehending 
Him and the purpose of His mission, if they had only 
loved what they could understand of both, they had 
not had sin. But as it was, the evidence compels us 
to conclude that they " hated Him without a cause." 
As at Nazareth, they wondered at His gracious 
words so long as His discourse was general, so it 
appears to have been everywhere, and to the last. 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 39 

But when they felt themselves condemned, instead 
of receiving the correction and profiting by it, they 
were "filled with wrath," and sought to destroy Him. 
And this purpose, gradually formed, gathered strength 
till it was consummated by nailing Him to the bitter 
cross. So much for the people of Nazareth, and the 
whole multitude of the Jews who ultimately crucified 
Jesus at Jerusalem. 

But what is the application of this narrative to the 
world which now is ? Doubtless, it has an application 
to us, and to all men living. It is nearly two thou- 
sand years since that day, and " we do not yet see all 
things put under Him." Many parts of the earth 
are yet in darkness, many races of men entirely 
ignorant of the gospel, while none have received it 
perfectly, or follow Christ wholly. Why is this ? 
Why this slow progress of the gospel, if it be of 
God ? Precisely because it is of God, and like Him, 
pure and exalted far above the plane of human think- 
ing and living. The moral standard of the gospel is 
too high to meet with a ready and general reception. 
The explanation now is the same as with the Jews. 
The chief reason, therefore, why men reject the gos- 
pel in all ages and among all races is, because they 
are not willing to obey it, and so are not ready to 
receive it. Nevertheless, from the day of its dawn, 
it has revealed the true light of the world and life of 
men, in the person and life of Christ. This fact is 
so far seen and felt, where the gospel is published, 



40 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

that men cannot wholly ignore or reject it. There 
is everywhere a feeling that the true human ideal is 
seen in the life and character of Christ ; that His 
doctrine is divine, and His gospel of God. Here is 
a religion which presents to men an ideal excellence 
of character and purity of life which they never 
reach, but which nevertheless (and perhaps for this 
very reason), they are persuaded, is God's unspeak- 
able gift to mankind. And this is a persuasion that 
grows stronger daily, and is becoming each year more 
widely diffused. But whereunto will it grow ? Will 
it become the religion of the world ? Beyond a 
doubt, and it has already overcome its greatest diffi- 
culties. The Jews thought they had put it to death 
when they crucified Christ, and pagans persecuted it 
by fire and sword into the possession of the Roman 
empire. Then the form in which it was received, as 
the religion of the empire by Constantine, and for 
ages afterward, was not primitive nor the purest. 
How could it be, seeing that thenceforth many Euro- 
pean races submitted to baptism at the point of the 
sword, and Christian nations were born in a day ? 
But the divinity of the gospel shows itself in nothing 
more than in its power to clear itself of surrounding 
corruptions, and to purify alike the individual heart 
and the communal life. It will always be the glory 
of Christianity to be superior to its most devoted 
adherents, who can never fully rise to the height of 
its great argument. 



CHAPTER VI. 

PHASES OF FAITH. 

The whole of Christendom is greater than any qf 
its parts, considered denominationally, chronologi- 
cally, or geographically. And as no finite mind has 
ever been able to measure the gospel, it is equally 
true that each sincere disciple receives a portion of 
its fullness, and perhaps in most cases the very por- 
tion best adapted to him, since each is attracted by 
that aspect of it which most deeply affects him. 
Even the apostles dwell upon different aspects of 
the gospel, and partly, no doubt, because of a differ- 
ent inward bent. In St. Paul's epistles, faith is the 
most prominent thought ; in St. John, it is love ; in 
St. James, duty, or doing, or works. And ever since 
their day, these fundamental principles have rela- 
tively attracted different minds, and have been com- 
bined in different proportions. Ardent, enthusiastic, 
aggressive natures demand active measures and mis- 
sionary operations, for they are impatient to see the 
kingdom of God come with power. Meditative minds 
delight to dwell on and in the love of God, while by 
the followers of St. James, the Sermon on the Mount 
is regarded as the substance of the gospel. Of 

3* 



42 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

course the whole truth includes all these phases, 
but individual men are too narrow to embrace them 
all and equally in their sympathies at the same time. 
This fact is indisputable, and goes far to explain the 
divisions which have sprung up more or less in every 
age. They began in the apostolic age and churches, 
and they have continued to the present time. The 
outward pressure of persecution kept most Chris- 
tians in one visible communion for a time, and after 
that, the terrors of church discipline, which now are 
but seldom exercised and little regarded in free and 
intelligent communities. Consequently, all are at 
liberty to follow their prevailing bent, and most men 
do, at least in the long run. Hence, uniformity is 
no longer possible. It is a thing of the past, and for- 
eign to the genius of the present age, and especially 
of American institutions and habits of thought. 

But though uniformity is neither practicable nor 
desirable, unanimity is both. We can all be of one 
mind in the household of God. We can all contend 
for the common faith, and do much to promote the 
common salvation. The real question for each Chris- 
tian and each church is the same now as in the syna- 
gogue of Nazareth. And this is it, are we "offended 
in Him " by anything in which He differs from our 
old opinions, jars on our prepossessions, or wounds 
our self love ? If, rising superior to these, we receive 
His testimony as true, we shall " follow on to know 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 43 

the Lord." And though at first we know Him, as the 
very apostles did, only "after the flesh," as "Jesus of 
Nazareth," "the son of Joseph, of whom Moses in 
the law and the prophets did write," yet abiding with 
Him we shall come with Peter to confess Him not 
only as " the Christ," but as " the Son of the living 
God." 

This is perhaps the usual, though by no means 
invariable, order. Certain it is, that the leaven of 
the gospel has generally, from the beginning, worked 
in this way; and it will so work till the whole lump 
is leavened. The seed, seemingly the least of all, 
has sprung up and borne fruit — some thirty, some 
sixty, and some an hundred fold. Already it has 
become the "greatest among herbs," and will yet fill 
this world, into which the Son of God came to set 
up "the kingdom of heaven." With His victory 
over death and the grave, that kingdom began to 
take form, of whose extent and duration no limit can 
be assigned. Future ages will as much surpass ours 
as ours does the earlier and ruder. Of old, God 
"provided better things" for the Jews than for the 
Gentile nations ; yet from the first, Christ was or- 
dained to be "a light to enlighten the Gentiles." In 
due time the Gentiles came " to His light and the 
brightness of His rising," "and in Him they did 
trust." Again, for us God has provided " better 
things " than for our pagan ancestors, even as He 



44 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

will provide better things yet for those who come 
after us. But as they "without us could not be made 
perfect," no more could we have attained to what we 
have, and are, without the ages that have gone be- 
fore. All ages are bound together, and no age can 
say of another, " I have no need of thee." No more 
can any church claim to be the only and exclusive 
representative of gospel truth, or repository of God's 
grace. The different branches of Christ's true church 
can and do, more or less, work together for the truth, 
and none can hinder it successfully or long. As no 
one man is capable of completely comprehending 
Christ in " His fullness," so no one branch of His 
church has ever fully represented it so as to leave 
nothing for others to do. 

Let no man deceive himself in this matter. For 
there is "a fullness in Christ" which exceeds all 
church symbols and standards. All Christians re- 
ceive " of this fullness," but none do or can receive 
it all. If I were speaking of Peter, John or Paul, we 
would have no difficulty in understanding what man- 
ner of men they severally were. For, great as they 
were, they are not beyond human standards of com- 
parison, and it is possible for us to compass them. 
The same is true of the prophets of the Old Testa- 
ment, from the least to the greatest. But it is far 
otherwise when Christ is the theme of our discourse 
or thought. His greatness transcends all human 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 45 

measures. He is "the Sun of righteousness," shin- 
ing in the splendor of His course, without a rival or 
kindred body with which we may compare Him, and 
He shines by His own light, borrowing none. 

In the first three gospels, He appears equally as 
"the Son of Man " and "the Son of God," but in St. 
John He is " the Incarnate Word of God." To sup- 
pose that the evangelists and apostles invented the 
character is to multiply the difficulty four and even 
twelve fold, for such a hypothesis requires us to 
believe that twelve men, all living at the same time, 
simultaneously Create a character to which every 
divine attribute hath set its seal ; a miracle which 
becomes more marvelous, when we reflect that no 
man since that day has been able to measure it, that 
the centuries thus far have but imperfectly compre- 
hended it, and that there is no danger that even the 
most distant future will exhaust it. For it is not 
conceivable that the moral progress of the world will 
ever rise to " the fulness of the stalture of Christ." 
However real and great the progress, there will 
always remain a distance which cannot be removed, 
heights insurmountable, depths unfathomable. For 
what is true of " the love of Christ," is equally so of 
His character as a whole. This being so, let no 
individual man, or single branch of the church, claim 
to have exclusive possession of the key to all the 
knowledge of Christ, or the virtues which properly 



46 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

belong to the ideal Christian. The declaration of 
the apostle is still true, that the best of men "know 
but in part and prophesy (teach) but in part." But 
when " that which is perfect is come " (the heavenly- 
state), then shall we see eye to eye, and know even 
as we are known. Let it suffice that now we are 
called "the sons of God," and comfort ourselves with 
the blessed hope that "when He who is our life shall 
appear, then shall we be like Him, for we shall see 
Him as He is, the brightness of the Father's glory, 
and the express image of His person." 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE THREE ERAS. 

Prevalent ideas respecting church history are 
often, to say the least, very vague, where they are 
not quite erroneous. Thus many date all the Chris- 
tianity in the world of any interest to us, or value to 
others, from the sixteenth century. That is to say, 
many regard all between that century and the first 
as of no account, or positively pernicious. But this 
is a dangerous as well as prejudiced opinion. Chris- 
tianity is a religion founded on facts. It is, and ever 
must be, essentially an historical religion, one that 
can be traced through all the centuries of its history 
back to its acknowledged first teacher and founder. 

I propose to divide this history into periods or 
clearly defined eras, exhibiting the salient features 
of each, nothing extenuating, setting down nothing 
in malice, but presenting the truth in love. I shall 
confine myself almost wholly to indisputable points, 
and shall be careful to contend only for the truth, 
quite willing that others shall draw their own 
conclusion as to ceremonial laws and doubtful 
disputations. 

For the sake of convenient handling, and with due 



48 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

regard to the actual order of events, we designate 
the several periods of church history as the Primitive, 
the Papal and the Protestant. The first third of this 
history we call the Primitive period or era, of six 
hundred years, — an era of boundless activity, rapid 
growth, great events, and crowned with marvelous 
success. But even this Primitive era must be sub- 
divided into three lesser eras, each of which has 
marked characteristics. We will call the first the 
apostolic, the second, that of the earlier, and the 
third, that of the later fathers. 

THE PRIMITIVE PERIOD. 

The age of the apostles is happily well known to 
Protestants, and no labor is spared to make it famil- 
iar. And it is with good reason that our guides dwell 
on this chapter of church history, for no subsequent 
age has equaled it in inspiration, authority, activity, 
or success. But it does not follow that subsequent 
ages should be ignored, or summarily dismissed with 
a wave of the hand, intended to bar out all further 
consideration of their claims to respectful attention. 
The apostles of Christ preached the gospel and 
founded churches in the principal cities of the Roman 
empire, and by their successors Christianity was 
carried to the remotest parts. Though often assailed 
from various quarters, the infant church was unmo- 
lested by the civil power, till the reign of Nero, a.d. 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 49 

64. After Nero's persecution, the church had rest 
till a.d. 94, under Domitian. The persecutions down 
to Constantine are generally reckoned as ten ; too 
large a number, if general persecutions are meant, 
too small, if only local ones are included. 

•The conversion of Constantine, a.d. 312, and the 
Council of Nicea, a.d. 325, introduced practically a 
new era, though we shall call it the third division of 
the Primitive Age of the Church. It belongs prop- 
erly to the Primitive period because there was not a 
conscious or visible departure from the principles of 
the apostolic church, but on the contrary, a sincere 
and strong purpose to adhere to those principles. 
The task proposed to itself by the Nicene Council, 
was precisely this, to ascertain and formulate in a 
symbolic creed, the faith of the churches acknowl- 
edged to be apostolic, i.e., churches that were founded 
by the apostles, and known to be warmly attached 
to the doctrines derived from the teachings of the 
apostles. 

THE PAPAL PERIOD. 

The second era, which we shall call the Papal 
era, began with the assumptions of superior author- 
ity and dignity, first formally made by Pope Leo, a.d. 
440, and continued by Gregory, a.d. 590, and his 
successors. The seeds of the papacy were sown 
broadcast all along, from the date of Constantine's 
conversion, but the ripe fruit did not appear till the 



50 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. ' 

new Constantine (Charlemagne) was by the Pope 
crowned emperor of the west. This was in the year 
a.d. 800, from which date till the opening of the 
sixteenth century, the papacy proper dominated not 
only the church, but the world. 

THE PROTESTANT PERIOD. 

With the sixteenth century, the middle or dark ages 
depart, and the modern or Protestant period begins. 
Like the Papal period, however, the Protestant had 
had a dawn which preceded and heralded the day. 
Wickliff, in the fourteenth century, was the morning 
star of the new day ; and in the fifteenth, John Huss 
began to scatter the darkness that had long envel- 
oped the continent through the long night of the 
middle ages. The darkness of those ages was deep- 
est in the ninth, tenth and eleventh centuries. The 
twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth showed signs of a 
new order to spring from the old, and the fifteenth 
century was an age of transition, when the art of 
printing was invented, and the love of literature was 
rekindled in the centers of learning. We draw the 
dividing line in the dark ages at the beginning of the 
eleventh century, because the lowest point had been 
touched before that time, and from that date the 
lights of modern civilization began to appear and 
gradually dissipate the dense darkness that had so 
long prevailed. 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 5 1 

Finally, the Protestant period, like its predecessor, 
is clearly divisible into two parts, viz., the era of 
dogma, and the era of life, institutions and mission- 
ary activity. In the sixteenth, seventeenth and eigh- 
teenth centuries, Protestantism was intensely dog- 
matic and deplorably narrow in its aims. Humanly 
speaking, this was perhaps inevitable, but it is a fact 
to be deplored none the less. If the truth of this 
statement is doubted by the reader, let him suspend 
his judgment till the evidence is adduced in the 
proper place and order. 

The earlier fathers of the Protestant reformation 
did a grand work, but the later fathers thereof failed to 
carry out what was so well begun, but only half done. 

With the nineteenth century, begins the second 
division of the Protestant period, the age of Bible so- 
cieties, of missions to the heathen, of concerted and 
co-operative effort in every department of Christian 
work and worship. This age has already disclosed 
its own weak points, and will yet discover others, but 
on the whole, Christianity, as Christ taught and 
meant it, is probably better understood, and more 
widely diffused, and more efficiently applied than 
ever before. 

RECAPITULATION. 

To recapitulate — There are, in all, three well de- 
fined epochs in the history of Christianity, and three 



52 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

corresponding eras of the church, viz., the Primitive, 
the Papal and the Protestant. These eras are strik- 
ingly different each from the other. Each has a 
family likeness, a life and discipline peculiarly its 
own, and which clearly separates it from both the 
others. Nevertheless, there are as few sharp corners 
in religion, as in nature, or in the several phases of 
social and political life. There are stages and ages 
in each quite unlike those that went before, as well 
as those that follow ; but each has its preparatory 
stages. No one appears before us full grown and 
in perfect panoply, like Minerva from the head of 
Jupiter. Even the apostolic church does not, and 
much less the mediaeval, or the modern. The story 
of Minerva is fable. The story of the Christian 
church is history. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE PRIMITIVE PERIOD. THE AGE OF THE APOSTLES. 

ST. PAUL. 

St. Paul was a typical apostle, and perhaps the 
best representative of the entire band, accepted as 
such by nearly all Protestants. J propose, therefore, 
in this chapter to speak of him at large, rather than 
of the others, for the reason that he is properly 
placed primus inter pares. He was, indeed, the great- 
est of the apostles, for in him were assembled and 
collectively shown forth the gifts and graces which 
their common Master committed severally to the 
others. Thus he was as just and pious as James, as 
honest, ardent, outspoken and frank as Peter, loving 
as John, modest as Matthew, zealous as Andrew, 
obedient as Philip, cautious as Thomas, and as 
devoted to the common salvation as Jude. But after 
his conversion he became entirely free from the ex- 
clusive Jewish sympathies which continued to influ- 
ence St. James, as well as from the national narrow- 
ness and party spirit above which St. Peter did not 
always rise. 

The names of Polycarp, Ignatius, Cyprian, Am- 
brose, St. Augustine, Gregory, Origen, Athanasius, 



54 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

Chrysostom, recall at once the image and writings of 
men in the primitive church who were as incompar- 
able in the " gifts " they received from God, as in the 
services which they were enabled to render. Each 
of these men was fitted for some peculiar service. 

If the mission of St. Paul is one of unequaled 
dignity, it is no less encompassed by dangers and 
environed by difficulties. The apostle is to go hence 
to the Gentiles, to pass from city to city, and from 
continent to continent. He is to encounter Jew and 
Greek, Scythian and barbarian, bond and free. He 
is to disciple the citizens of Antioch, of Athens, of 
Corinth, of Ephesus, of Rome. He is to enlighten the 
ignorant, convince gainsayers, dispute with philoso- 
phers, give audience to kings. The great, the power- 
ful, the learned, the rich, the poor, the proud, the 
prosperous, the despairing, he is the minister of all 
these, and whatever other classes could possibly con- 
front him in his perilous journeyings. And these 
journeyings — how frequent, how long, how perilous! 
How singular his sufferings ! How great his labors ! 
How glorious his success ! 

What a combination of gifts, of graces, and of 
attainments, does this man's career exhibit ! A Jew- 
ish education, Greek culture, Roman citizenship, 
much learning, quick perceptions, hearty sympathies, 
a spirit of self sacrifice, a love of labor, a contempt 
of danger, a desire to do good, zeal according to 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 55 

knowledge, compassion for the weak and erring, the 
deepest solicitude for the salvation of men. 

St. Paul was a religious man, before he became a 
Christian man. He was of Jewish parentage, by 
whom he was carefully educated in the Jewish relig- 
ion, in which he profited more than his equals, i.e., 
his contemporaries. Here, then, the interesting in- 
quiry arises as to the change his character under- 
went, if any, at his conversion. Excepting a change 
of faiths and of masters, substituting Jesus of Naza- 
reth for Gamaliel of Jerusalem, was he not, after all, 
essentially the same man ? No, we reply. And others 
must admit this, who will compare the fiery perse- 
cutor of the Christians with the earnest advocate of 
the faith he had sought to destroy. 

Before his conversion, he was narrow, prejudiced, 
violent, cruel. Being exceedingly mad against the 
followers of the Nazarene, he sought them out, and 
haled both men and women to prison. Armed with 
letters of introduction, and commissioned by the 
high priest, he quitted Jerusalem for Damascus, with 
the express purpose of persecuting to the death such 
disciples as he should find in that remote region. 
Contrast with this ferocious temper, the love which 
led him to exclaim that he would willingly be ac- 
cursed with Christ for the sake of his brethren 
according to the flesh. 

He was remarkable for activity and zeal to the last, 



56 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

but now beneficent and full of good fruits. How wide 
as well as warm were his sympathies, not only for the 
Jews, but for the Gentiles, whom he served, and for 
whom he willingly sacrificed his popularity, his ease 
and liberty, and finally his life. 

He was the first to seize upon and apply the decla- 
ration of Jesus, that not only in Jerusalem, but every- 
where, men must worship the Father in spirit and in 
truth, for God is not the God of the Jews only, but 
of the Gentiles as well. St. Paul was the first man 
to break down, at every risk to himself, the exclusive 
pretensions of the Jews, his own countrymen, and to 
insist on the perfect equality of the Gentiles with 
them, — the first to proclaim the fatherhood of God, 
and the common brotherhood of mankind, without 
distinction of race, color, or previous condition. 

Religion, before his day, the world over, had been 
an affair of rites, ceremonies and priestly exactions 
and oppressions. He made ceaseless warfare on all 
these superstitious dogmas, and preached to all men 
a religion of reason, faith and love. Trust in God, 
or faith, was, according to Paul, the beginning of the 
religious life, hope the first fruit, and love the never- 
failing issue — love, without which all knowledge and 
all faith, even, are both vain, and we ourselves sound- 
ing brass and tinkling cymbals. 

All this sounds familiar enough now, and seems 
very easy, both to teach and to learn, but in the 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 57 

apostle's time nothing was harder, or farther from 
the conceptions of mankind. The Christian concep- 
tion was an entirely new departure, giving us a new 
type of manliness, generically superior to the old 
pagan type. This is certainly true, and to Paul's 
greatness of soul and incomparable services, we owe 
its introduction and practical adoption more than to 
all other human causes. 

This estimate is based on the fact that man is 
essentially, always, and everywhere, a religious being 
— that the religious sentiment is the deepest of his 
nature, and yet that before the introduction of Chris- 
tianity, as Paul preached it, the religious sentiment 
was everywhere perverted and degraded into a miser- 
able superstition. Paul was the first to divest religion 
of the husks which had incrusted it, and to remove 
the rubbish by which its great truths were concealed 
from view. The warmth of his love and the breadth 
of his sympathies far exceeded all known examples 
among men, with the single exception of Jesus, with 
whom we decline to compare Paul, or any mere man, 
believing Jesus to be the manifestation of the High- 
est — the brightness of the Father's glory, and the 
express image of His person. 

Most men will make the same confession as did 
Napoleon at St. Helena, viz. : that Jesus is the one 
and only personality in history they cannot under- 
stand. He is apart from all others. But St. Paul 
4 



58 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

was a man of like passions with ourselves, a man 
after our own hearts, whom we can understand, and 
with whom we can entirely sympathize, because he 
was intensely human. Strange that such a man 
should ever have been claimed by bigots and perse- 
cutors, or, for a moment, been conceded to such, by 
liberal and noble minds. 

After all, it is true of Paul, as of Cicero and many 
other celebrated men, that he is best known to us 
by his letters. Of these, there are thirteen received 
as such, the most characteristic and important of 
which are the epistles to the Romans and Galatians, 
and the two epistles to the Corinthians. These four 
are undisputed, and from them we learn more of 
Paul, his manner of life and doctrine than from any 
and all other sources. In these letters, Paul's great 
soul shines out like the sun, shedding both light and 
warmth on all the great problems of ethics and relig- 
ion, their relations to God and the whole race of 
mankind. If we compare these letters with other 
celebrated and classical epistles, elegance of style is 
the only feature in which they are found inferior to 
any, while in all the higher qualities they excel all 
others. 

No better judge of literature has lived in our cen- 
tury than Coleridge ; and Coleridge pronounces Paul's 
epistle to the Romans, considered merely as a human 
production, the grandest effort of the human mind' 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 59 

the profoundest intellectual work in the world. So 
much for the apostle's intellectual status. But beyond 
even his mental force was the greatness of his heart, 
as evinced in many passages of his letters and in his 
life. 

Witness his letter to Philemon, his address to the 
elders of Ephesus, and his passionate declaration 
that he could wish himself accursed from Christ — 
devoted as a sacrifice like his Master — so that Israel 
might receive the true righteousness of God by faith, 
rather than rely on the false righteousness of cere- 
monial observances. 

Finally, St. Paul excelled all others as being equally 
eminent as a man of thought and a man of action, — 
a twofold greatness which we scarcely find in any 
other. Most men are eminent in only one of these 
directions, but it was the grand distinction of St. 
Paul to combine them, and so to exert an influence 
on the world which is without a parallel, having suc- 
cessfully presented in the ablest manner, the most 
important subject that can engage the human mind. 

No doubt Paul had his limitations, defects and 
positive faults of character. His temperament may 
have been of undue warmth for perfect symmetry, 
and his tenacity of purpose was never surpassed. 
He owed nothing to his personal appearance, his 
eyes were weak and his bodily presence was feeble, 
As an orator measured by the Greek standard, the 



60 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

action on which they laid so much stress, was want- 
ing, but his letters were, and ever will be, mighty to 
the pulling down the strongholds of sin and supersti- 
tious rites, which enslave mankind only to make them 
twofold more the sons of perdition than they were 
before, or would have been without them. 

But perhaps the most commendable feature of St. 
Paul's career was the edifying nature of his teach- 
ings. If he with a firm hand pulled down and leveled 
to the dust many ancient and hoary superstitions, he 
was justified, first, by the fact of their pernicious 
influence, and secondly by the still more decisive 
consideration that he had something to put in their 
place which could not fail to elevate mankind to a 
far higher plane than they had ever before reached, 
and put them on the path of endless improvement. 
This is an aspect of his life and character not to be 
overlooked, and which should be carefully studied by 
all who are persuaded that they have a mission to 
turn mankind from the old to the new, and the dark- 
ness to light. 

When Paul went forth from Judea to prosecute the 
great work of his life, a work which has endured to 
the present day, Judaism was old, decrepit and ready 
to vanish away, a sure sign that its end was near. 
But ere it ceased to live it gave birth to Christianity, 
a religion which springing from Judaism, was yet 
essentially different in its spirit, scope and purpose, 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 6l 

— its grand, essential principle being that " God is a 
Spirit," to be worshipped exclusively, neither in Sama- 
ria nor Jerusalem, but everrwhere " in spirit and in 
truth ; " that is to say, in the exercise of our own 
highest faculties which alone are capable of com- 
munion with the Divine, and according to the truth 
of the Divine nature and character, and not after the 
rudiments of sects, and much less the ceremonial 
and burdensome observances imposed by a human 
mediating priesthood. 

To sum up : From this survey, brief as it is, we 
are warranted in regarding St. Paul as the greatest 
of the apostles and grandest of mortal men. His 
conversion was the turning point and the great event 
of his life. His mission was to preach Christ to the 
Gentiles, turning them from darkness to light and 
from the power of Satan to God. 

In the prosecution of his work, he made three 
extensive and perilous missionary journeys, founded 
numerous churches in Asia, and was the first to in- 
troduce the gospel to Europe. He is, therefore, the 
human founder of the European churches. In all his 
journeys he preached not himself, but Christ. He 
expressly declares that he was sent, not to baptize, 
but to preach, thus exalting the office of the preacher. 
His success corresponded to the greatness of [his 
exertions and sacrifices. His work on earth has 
never been duplicated, nor can it ever be. Luther 



62 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

and Wesley approached him nearest in aim, temper, 
trials, dangers and dignity of office. More than any- 
other man, he could say, as the end approached, " I 
have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, 
I have kept the faith." 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE PRIMITIVE PERIOD. AGE OF PAGAN PERSECU- 
TIONS. 

The second division of this era, was the age of the 
greater and lesser persecutions which, originating 
with the worthless and tyrannical Nero, in the first 
century, were continued by the last and best of the 
Romans, such as Trajan and Marcus Aurelius, in 
the second century, and consummated by Decius, 
Valerian, Aurelian and Diocletian, from the middle 
of the third century to the twelfth year of the fourth, 
when the final victory of Constantine gave to him un- 
disputed empire, and to the church, peace in all her 
borders. Between Aurelian and Diocletian, too, there 
was a long interval of rest, much needed and dili- 
gently improved by the Christian host. 

These persecutions were intended for the destruc- 
tion of the church, but they proved the means of its 
salvation in the highest sense. ' They winnowed the 
wheat from the chaff, the genuine coin from the coun- 
terfeit, the true from the false, and so served to keep 
the body of Christians pure, free from all foreign and 
base elements. They were so many fiery furnaces, 
in which human hearts were tried as silver, and puri- 



64 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

fied seven times. They were also schools of disci- 
pline in which the soldiers of Christ were trained till 
they were ready to endure hardness, and suffer the 
loss of all things as witnesses for Christ and the 
truth of His gospel. Not only men, but delicate 
women and little children, were " obedient unto 
death " in its most appalling shapes. This constancy 
was something entirely new, in the manner and spirit 
of its manifestation among Christians, and probably 
did more to arouse attention and carry conviction to 
their fellow citizens, than all the preaching of those 
ages. The blood of the martyrs was the seed of the 
church. Never did Christians so glorify God and 
His gospel as in the midst of the fire. And the re- 
sult was, Christianity continued its conquests in every 
direction. In the East, the missionaries of that age 
penetrated into Persia, Parthia, and even India ; in the 
West, they reached Ultima Thule, in Britain. 

And while missionaries prosecuted these hazardous 
journeys, apologists, like Justin Martyr and Athen- 
agoras, pressed the claims of Christianity on the im- 
perial philosopher and stocic, Marcus Aurelius, whose 
reply, to Justin, at least, was an order for his martyr- 
dom, which he immediately suffered. But his place 
was soon taken by others, nor is there a break in the 
chain, not one link wanting, from that day to this. 

This was also the age of the apostolic fathers, men 
who had seen the apostles, and whose writings, there- 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 65 

fore, were of considerable authority. The best known 
of these writings are the two epistles of Clement to 
the Corinthians, which resemble those of St. Paul to 
the same church ; the epistle of Barnabas, which is 
similar in design and scope to the epistle to the 
Hebrews, though far inferior in execution ; the Shep- 
herd of Hermas, a vision of much repute in the sec- 
ond century ; the seven epistles of Ignatius, only 
three of which are undisputed ; and the epistle of 
Polycarp, the celebrated disciple of St. John. 

After these, and second to them only, are Heges- 
ippus, the first church historian, who wrote about the 
middle of the second century ; the apologist, Justin 
Martyr, already mentioned, martyred a.d. 168 ; Ter- 
tullian, who nourished in North Africa a.d. 190-220 ; 
Cyprian of Carthage, his pupil and successor in in- 
fluence, converted a.d. 246, elected bishop, 248, mar- 
tyred, 258. The authority of Tertullian was seriously 
impaired by his adoption of Montanism, so called 
from Montanus of Mysia, who claimed to be a special 
organ of the Paraclete. Cyprian rejected Montanism, 
and held him himself aloof from all other fanatical 
movements of his age and country, but was himself 
the author of what has since been called high church 
Episcopacy, regarding the Episcopate as of strict 
apostolic origin and authority, itself a unit of which 
each bishop holds an undivided share. {Episcopa- 
tus unus, cujus a singulis in solidum pars tenetur.) 

A* 



66 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

The first theological school sprang up at Alexan- 
dria, of which Pantaenus was the probable founder 
and first teacher, a.d. 180. Clement (of Alexandria) 
succeeded him (109-210) and Origen Clement. 
Origen was born of Christian parentage, a.d. 185, 
became president of the school a.d. 203, when he was 
only eighteen years of age. He was ordained in 228, 
and died in 254, aged sixty-nine. He was by far the 
greatest scholar of his age, and a man of genius, too, 
with a will of adamant, and a soul of fire. Many 
were the vicissitudes of his career. He had warm 
friends, but his life was embittered by the opposition 
of numerous enemies, inferior men, who were jealous 
of his superiority, and were necessarily dwarfed by 
comparison with him. 

The Alexandrian school was of the " Broad 
Church " type, which has had, and always will have, 
representatives in the church, where thought is free, 
and theology cultivated as a science. Antioch, also, 
had its school of theology, more evangelical and con- 
servative of church traditions than that of Alexandria. 

Rome, the mistress of the world, was the last of 
these three metropolitan cities to develop a theory 
which it borrowed from Carthage, its ancient rival in 
arts and arms. The least original and aggressive of 
all the branches of the church in this age, we shall 
see it in the next period (the Nicene), gradually en- 
croaching upon the rights and liberties of all others, 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 6*] 

and ultimately absorbing them, till she becomes the 
recognized head of the Latin or Western church. 
Constantinople, and the Greek church generally, 
stoutly denied her claims then, and have steadily 
refused to allow them, down to our own time. 

There were also heresies in those days, which dif- 
fered from the commonly received faith in every de- 
gree, from the least to the greatest. The Docetae, like 
some moderns, held that things are not as they seem, 
e.g., that the incarnation was not real, but only sen- 
sible or apparent ; the Novatians answered to the 
Puritans of the English church ; the Gnostics to the 
English and American Unitarians, inasmuch as they 
were rationalists in principle, and professed to re- 
ceive Christianity by insight rather than faith, and 
therefore to discard all that did not harmonize with 
the deductions of reason, or what they held to be 
alone reasonable. Manichaeism was a dualistic sys- 
tem of Persian origin, a compound of Parsism and 
Christianity, inculcating the dogma of two rival dei- 
ties, good and evil, whose kingdoms and subjects are 
those of light and darkness. The Ebionites and Naz- 
arenes were sects of Jewish Christians, who held to 
the original Hebrew gospel of St. Matthew, and be- 
lieved in Jesus as their national Messiah, the last and 
greatest of the prophets, to be revered and obeyed, 
but not worshiped. 

Thus we see that nearly all our modern divisions 



68 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

of thought were actually represented even in the 
primitive and purest age of the church. But when 
we consider numbers, we must not forget that the 
great body of believers were of one heart and one 
mind, professing "the apostles' creed," and continu- 
ing in the fellowship of those churches called apos- 
tolic, because founded by the apostles, and generally 
allowed to have perpetuated the apostolic order and 
transmitted the apostolic faith. 

The characteristic feature of the gospel is best 
brought out by the contrast of its sphere and spirit 
with that of its proudest and most pretentious rival, 
the philosophical scheme known as Neo-Platonism. 
It was the constant boast of the advocates of this 
philosophy, that only men of pure hearts and lives 
were initiated into its mysteries, while they alleged 
that the church was constantly receiving sinners, and 
was largely made up of artisans, slaves and others 
from the lowest class of society. The reply of the 
Christian apologist to the charge was, " We allow it, 
for Christ came to call, not the righteous, but sin- 
ners ; but He calls them to repentance and a new 
life. Thus, we come to Him proud and He makes us 
humble, ignorant and He enlightens us, foolish and 
He makes us wise, faithless and He makes us believ- 
ing, impure and He makes us chaste, rebellious and 
He makes us obedient, strangers and aliens from the 
commonwealth of Israel, and He makes us fellow- 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 69 

citizens with the saints and of the household of God. 
Whereas we were formerly without hope, as without 
God in the world, we now rejoice with unspeakable 
joy in the precious promises which God has given 
us in Christ Jesus our Lord." 

The membership of the church in this age was 
indeed comparatively pure. A despised and perse- 
cuted sect, has no attractions for the worldly, ambi- 
tious, or insincere. The worship was simple, and 
consisted of Scripture reading and expositions, com- 
mon prayer and praise, with the celebration of the 
Lord's Supper. Liturgies were in general use. 
Baptism was the initiatory rite, universally received, 
and immersion the form, applied chiefly to adults in 
the first century, but equally to infants in the second 
and all subsequent centuries, on the ground of being 
an apostolic tradition, and in harmony with Christ's 
institution. Laymen took an active and influential 
part in church affairs, and from the beginning of 
authentic church history, we read of three orders in 
the ministry. No city had more than one bishop, 
though it might. have many presbyters and deacons, 
and numerous church assemblies and edifices. Thus 
Ignatius was bishop of Antioch, Polycarp, of Smyrna, 
Irenasus, of Lyons. A bishop was primus inter pares 
as to the other clergy, but each bishop was officially 
equal to any other bishop. The bishops of other 
cities could and did differ from the bishop of Rome, 



yO EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

and disputed with him on perfectly equal terms. The 
only doctrinal test or symbol was " the Apostles' 
Creed," the shortest, simplest and surest of all creeds, 
a return to which would heal most of the modern 
divisions among Christians. 

In brief, this was the heroic age of the church, 
whose achievements have never been equaled since, 
and whose illustrious virtues, sacrifices and works 
constitute an inestimable treasure, the common herit- 
age of Christendom. " God," says Jeremy Taylor, 
" was to build up Jerusalem. On the one side there 
was scandalum cruris; on the other patientia sanc- 
torum, and what was the event ? They that had 
overcome the world could not strangle Christianity. 
But so have I seen the sun, with a little ray of dis- 
tant light, challenge all the powers of darkness, and, 
without violence or noise, climbing up the hill, hath 
made night so retire that its memory was lost in the 
joys and spritefulness of the morning. And Christi- 
anity, without violence or armies, without resistance 
and self-preservation, without strength or human 
eloquence, without challenging of privileges or fight- 
ing against tyranny, without alteration of govern- 
ment and scandal of princes, with its humility and 
meekness, with toleration and patience, with obedi- 
ence and charity, with praying and dying, did insen- 
sibly turn the world into Christian, and persecution 
into victory." 



CHAPTER X. 

THE NICENE AGE. 

The darkest hour of the night is the last, and the 
darkest hour in the history of the Christian church 
was that which immediately preceded her delivery 
from the most cruel persecutions which her enemies 
could devise. From Decius to Diocletian, or the last 
half of the third century, there was scarcely an inter- 
val of repose, and no form of injury which was not 
inflicted. But when Constantine (a.d. 311) had van- 
quished his rivals, he openly espoused the cause of 
the Christians and brought them aid and succor, while 
he barely tolerated the celebration of heathen rites, 
which were formally suppressed by Theodosius near 
the close of the century. Christians emerged from 
their hiding-places in great numbers, came rapidly to 
the front, were intrusted with the highest offices 
and received the highest honors of the empire. This 
was especially true of the clergy, on whom Constan- 
tine bestowed every mark of his favor, inviting them 
to court, rebuilding their churches on a magnificent 
scale, and making ample provision for the revenues 
of a kingdom whose Founder had declared that it 
was "not of this world." 



72 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

Apart from the world, opposed to and by it up to 
this date, henceforth it was to share the vicissitudes 
of courts and kings. Enjoying the protection of all 
subsequent emperors, except Julian the apostate, 
the church soon forgot her former woes in the sun- 
shine of present prosperity. Long used to poverty, 
she bad become suddenly rich. No longer despised 
and forsaken so that but few of the great and noble 
were numbered among her children, her courts were 
now crowded with worshipers. Formerly her con- 
gregations were confined to the "upper rooms" of 
private houses ; now they assembled in splendid 
basilicas, built to last for centuries, adorned with 
precious stones and enriched with vessels and orna- 
ments of gold and silver. Her ministers, once hunted 
down and driven into exile, were now received with 
favor everywhere, and their society highly valued. 
The effect of this sudden transition on the character 
of the church, her ministers and members, did not 
differ from all similar changes among men. It is not 
in human nature to withstand the injurious influences 
of such rapid revolutions of fortune. " The minds of 
men, like their eyes, require time to adjust themselves 
to novel situations, and especially when they suddenly 
emerge from the dark trials of poverty and persecu- 
tion into the dazzling light of boundless prosperity. 

In many respects, the civil administration and 
general society underwent most favorable changes. 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 73 

Barbaric laws were repealed or modified, while the 
tone of social life was much improved, though by no 
means wholly purified. The rigors of slavery were 
gradually abolished, the sentiment of brotherhood 
was introduced, and the sphere of woman greatly 
elevated. For the first time, out of Judea, the true 
ideas of marriage and family life, all that is involved 
in the dignity and happiness of half the race, were 
successfully incorporated into the laws of the empire, 
whence they passed into the legislation and life of all 
Christian nations. Such was the immediate influence 
of the church on the civilized world as it then was. 
But what was the influence of the world on the 
church ? It was reciprocal and perhaps equal. If 
the tone of society was raised, that of the church 
was lowered. If outwardly the world became Chris- 
tian, the church, within and without, became worldly. 
The clergy grew luxurious, ambitious of worldly dis- 
tinctions and honors, and often greedy of gain. 

Heresies were scented from afar, which gave rise 
to fiery debates, from which divisions sprang up that 
rent the church. Of old, it used to be said, "See 
how these Christians love one another." But in this 
period, they began to turn their weapons against 
each other. 

In this era, great doctrinal controversies arose, and 
the general councils were held which settled them. 
The chief controversies were the Arian, the Pelagian, 



74 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

the Apollinarian, the Nestorian, the Monothelite, the 
Monophysite, and the Donatist, controversies touch- 
ing the divine and human natures of Christ and the 
operations of grace. The councils were held in 
Nicaea (325), Constantinople (381), Ephesus (441), 
and Chalcedon (451). The leading disputants who 
figured in these controversies and councils, were 
Athanasius and Arius, Augustine and Pelagius, Cyril 
and Nestorius, Eusebius, Jerome, Gregory Nazian- 
zen, Eutyches, Chrysostom, Leo, and Gregory called 
the Great. 

The first general council which demands our atten- 
tion is that of Nicaea (a.d. 325), a council which called 
together the chief representative men of the church, 
a venerable and imposing assembly from its numbers 
(two hundred and fifty), gravity, general worth and 
dignity of character. They represented the leading 
churches, more especially those that claimed apostolic 
descent, and piqued themselves on a scrupulous ad- 
herence to the discipline and doctrine they had 
received from the apostles and the apostolic fathers. 
This is the chief claim of the council to our consid- 
eration, since it was called to determine a fact, viz., 
what was the true Christian doctrine of Christ's 
higher nature ? His human nature being undisputed 
in this age, though not in the preceding, as witness 
the Docetae and Gnostics, what is to be affirmed and 
believed to be true of His higher nature ? 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 75 

There was a general assent to the dogma which 
declared it to be divine, but is the divinity of Christ 
relative or absolute, derived, or original ? Here was 
a fundamental question which, once propounded, 
could not be evaded. Historically, it originated in 
this way. Hitherto the whole body of believers had 
been satisfied with the general confession of faith 
called ''the apostles' creed," which for all the prac- 
tical purposes of worship was and is the best creed 
of Christendom. Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria, 
was the first to disturb the general peace of the 
church, which he did by declaring that the divinity 
of Christ was not the same as the divinity of the 
Father, but only similar. As the terms he at first 
employed were somewhat ambiguous, he had, for a 
time, the usual courtesy of being unmolested ex- 
tended to him, because of the doubt as to the precise 
significance of the distinction he would introduce 
into Christian teaching. But when Athanasius, a 
youthful deacon of the same church, drew from him 
the admission that Christ's existence began in time, 
it followed that there was a time when He did not 
exist, and that, instead of being regarded as the 
Creator of all, He must, therefore, be reduced to the 
rank of a creature. 

This conclusion, following inevitably from the pre- 
mise of Arius, arrested the attention of the whole 
church, and was the occasion of so much controversy 



y6 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

as to necessitate the calling of a general council, 
which assembled at Nicaea, near Constantinople, at 
the command and under the protection of Constan- 
tine. How far, or in what way, the emperor may 
have sought to influence the decision of the council 
has been disputed. Constantine was no theologian, 
and he appears to have allowed due freedom to the 
delegates of the churches, who, with few exceptions, 
agreed in their conclusions and united in formulating 
the symbol since known as " the Nicene creed," or 
rather that part of it relating to the nature of Christ 
in His relations to the Father. 

The clauses touching the double nature of our 
Lord, as both divine and human, with two corre- 
sponding wills, and a real human nature with a per- 
fect human soul as well as body, were added at the 
following councils held at Constantinople (a.d. 381), 
at Ephesus (a.d. 44O, and at Chalcedon (a.d. 451), 
also the clause relating to the Holy Ghost, complet- 
ing the creed, which has remained unaltered since, 
save by the addition of the " filioque" clause, subse- 
quently made by the Western or Latin church, in 
opposition to the more Scriptural view of the Greek 
church, a slight clause, yet sufficient to divide the 
church by asserting that the Holy Ghost proceeds 
from "the Father and the Son." 

Arius and Athanasius were both men of great 
talents, and defended their views with as much ability 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. JJ 

as any of their successors have done. Arius shared 
the fate of such, in all ages, as fail to get a footing. 
He died soon after, and though his party continued 
for several generations, it gradually dwindled till it 
disappeared. 

Athanasius lived nearly fifty years after the ad- 
journment of the council, and his influence increased 
in the church in proportion to the persecutions he 
suffered from Constantine and his sons. He was 
repeatedly banished from Alexandria, but found 
faithful friends wherever he went. " Athanasius 
contra mundum" "Athanasius against the world," 
became one of the watchwords of the church, a talis- 
manic phrase, by which the faithful were often rallied 
to their duty when driven by persecution from their 
homes and churches into the wildernesses of the 
world. 

As already implied, there were other controversies 
relating to the person or nature of Christ, such as 
the Monophysite and the Monothelite. That is to 
say, the question arose whether Christ had one or 
two natures, and it was decided that he had two. 
Did one will dominate this two-fold nature ? No, 
was the reply. Christ had two wills, a divine, and a 
human will. He was u very God and very man," and 
each nature was whole and entire, wanting nothing. 
But though there are two natures in Christ, His per- 
sonality is not plural, but single. He has two natures, 



y8 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

but is one person. " Son of God " and " Son of man " 
as to natures, He is the one historical person whom 
the church acknowledges as its head, and Christians 
accept, believe in, and love as their Savior. In the 
language of that day, the two natures of Christ are 
not to be confounded, nor His person divided. 

All these decisions were made by the general 
councils, six in all, of which only four are undisputed. 
The completed Nicene creed taught that the Holy 
Ghost proceeds from the Father. That He pro- 
ceeds also from the Son, was a later addition to the 
creed, made in the West, which can be defended only 
by explaining that the procession from the Son is in 
the sense of " mission " from Him. 

Other councils, besides these six, are received as 
ecumenical by some divisions of the church, but only 
these are generally so reckoned and their decisions 
received as conclusive, " because they have most 
certain warrant of Scripture." 

The next controversy that arose was the " Pela- 
gian," so called from Pelagius, a native of Britain, 
who came to Rome early in the fifth century. There 
he soon made himself popular, by teaching that man- 
kind did not fall in Adam, and that all have the abil- 
ity to repent and become Christians without the aid 
of special grace. Augustine assailed this doctrine as 
subversive of the whole scheme of Christianity. His 
refutation of it was accepted by the church as con- 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 79 

elusive, and the Augustinian doctrine of grace be- 
came the standard of orthodoxy, and has continued 
to hold its place as an integral part of the Christian 
doctrine of grace along with that of the Nicene con- 
ception of Christology. 

These controversies settled for ages, if not for all 
time, the two fundamental truths which together 
form the basis of a Christian theology, viz. (i) that 
man is a sinner, unable to save himself by his own 
unaided efforts ; and (2) that God has provided an 
all-sufficient and meritorious Savior for man in the 
person of His only begotten Son, who is both able 
and willing to save to the uttermost " all who come to 
the Father by Him." These ideas entered into the 
consciousness of Christians from the first, but they 
were clearly defined and logically formulated in the 
age now under consideration. 

There were, in this age, other able defenders of 
the faith besides Athanasius and Augustine. Nesto- 
rius, for insisting on calling the virgin " the mother 
of Christ," instead of " the mother of God " (which 
had become the popular phrase), was persecuted and 
banished from his see of Constantinople, and finally 
condemned as a heretic. Eusebius of Caesarea ac- 
cepted the Nicene creed with some reservations and 
explanations, and so became the leader of a party 
called " Semi-Arians." But neither Arians nor Semi- 
Arians, answer to any modern branch of the church. 



80 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

Though aiming at clearness of conception, and fancy- 
ing themselves superior to the Athanasians in logical 
acumen, they exposed themselves to the charge of 
logical inconsistency, mental confusion, and even con- 
tradiction of terms in denying Christ's absolute di- 
vinity, and yet conceding that He was a proper object 
of worship, by whose passion and death we obtain 
salvation, and that He is omniscient enough to judge 
the world in that day when all the dead shall hear 
His voice. While they flattered themselves, and en- 
deavored to persuade others, that they rejected the 
commonly received doctrine of the church because 
they saw clearer and farther than others, their survey 
of the subject was superficial, their comprehension of 
it partial, and their grasp of it weak. 

The orthodox faith found able defenders in Greg- 
ory, of Nyssa, and his brother Basil, Gregory, Naz- 
ianzen, Chrysostom, of Constantinople, and Jerome, 
who was a hard student, and devoted many years to 
the elucidation of the sacred text, and thereby fur- 
nished the church with the Latin version of the 
Scriptures, since known as " the Vulgate," Latin be- 
ing then the vulgar or common tongue. Jerome, 
from choice, retired from cities, and passed many 
years in the seclusion of the deserts and villages of 
Palestine, where he prosecuted his studies without 
the distraction of courts, society, and crowds of 
people. 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 8 1 

Chrysostom went to Constantinople near the close 
of the fourth century, and for ten years fought a good 
fight, bravely combating the superstitions and sins of 
the city and court till his lips were closed and his 
life ended by banishment and torture. 

Thus far, we have spoken mainly of the thinkers, 
theologians and preachers of this period. It behooves 
us to make honorable mention of the ablest adminis- 
trators of the Church, more especially of Ambrose of 
Milan, who flourished in the last quarter of the fourth 
century. He was a man of clear perceptions, an elo- 
quent preacher, and above all an executive officer of 
great vigor, who hesitated not to exclude from the 
communion the Emperor Theodosius, when he had 
imbrued his hands in innocent blood. 

Near the middle of the next century, the fifth, Leo I 
became bishop of Rome, and continued in that office 
twenty-one years (a.d. 440-461). He is justly re- 
garded as the founder of the greatness of that see, 
and he devoted his official life to its aggrandizement. 
After him, in the sixth century (a.d. 590), came 
Gregory the Great, who administered the see on the 
principles of Leo, which he applied more vigorously 
than any of his predecessors. 

In this way, by continued encroachments on other 

sees and churches, the bishops of Rome constantly 

increased their own power and the influence of their 

own Church. The grand scheme of the papacy be- 

5 



82 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

gan to unfold itself from the time the city was aban- 
doned by Constantine. It requires but little knowl- 
edge of human nature to enable us to perceive how 
easy it must have been for the bishops of the Roman 
Church to get themselves gradually acknowledged as 
the successors of the emperors who had virtually va- 
cated the throne and abandoned the empire of the 
West. 

To sum up. This second division of the Primitive 
period includes the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries. 
It is remarkable as the age which witnessed the be- 
ginning of the union between the Church and the 
State, which continued unbroken till the sixteenth 
century. The advantages of the union, to the Church, 
were worldly and temporal. Little by little the tone 
of the Church was lowered, her doctrines were cor- 
rupted, and her spiritual life extinguished, till she had 
but a name to live. 

Secondly. This was the age of great controversies 
touching fundamental principles, the issues of which 
are embodied in the ancient symbols, which will long 
retain their hold upon the hearts of evangelical 
Christians. 

Thirdly. In this age, the power of Rome as a secu- 
lar power began to decline, and as the ancient empire 
began to dissolve, men's hearts failed them for fear of 
the things which should come upon the earth. Then 
it was that Augustine, the best representative man of 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 83 

the period, conceived the idea of Civitas Dei, " the 
city of God," which in the counsels of heaven was 
destined to supersede the city which had been called 
"eternal," but was no less subject to decay than other 
earthly empires. This grand conception of the great 
theologian was welcomed with enthusiasm by all 
Christians, and served to reconcile many Romans, 
not avowedly Christians, to what seemed inevitable 
even to them. Gradually this sublime vision mastered 
the thoughts of men till the common mind was pos- 
sessed with it. In the course of time, the image of it 
was seriously blurred and disfigured, but it was never 
wholly lost. 

In the mind of Augustine it assumed its highest 
form when, after his conversion, he revisited the 
spot where he parted years before from his mother. 
Meeting her for the last time on earth, they con- 
versed on these high themes, now sacred to them 
both. Feeling that the end was near for one of them, 
and the happiness of heaven soon to be entered on, 
they could but ask themselves what probably it was 
most like. And the reply came, it is a continuous, 
unbroken, everlasting ecstasy, such as the soul of 
the Christian is only occasionally favored with, and 
which on earth is felt but for a moment, but there, 
in the Savior's presence, will endure and increase 
forever and ever. 

Within three days from this interview Monica, the 



84 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

mother, passed into rest, while Augustine girded 
himself for the work which God had given him to 
do, a mission second only to that of the apostle 
whom, in many respects, he resembled, the great 
" apostle of the Gentiles." 

THE APOSTLES' CREED. 

1 believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and 
earth. 

And in Jesus Christ, His only Son our Lord ; who was conceived 
by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary ; suffered under Pontius 
Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried ; He descended into hell, the 
third day He rose again from the dead ; He ascended into heaven, 
and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from 
thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. 

I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy Catholic church; the com- 
munion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the 
body ; and the life everlasting. Amen. 

THE NICENE CREED. 

I believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and 
earth, and of all things visible and invisible : 

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, be- 
gotten of His Father before all worlds ; God of God, Light of Light, 
very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance 
with the Father ; by whom all things were made ; who, for us men, and 
for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the 
Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was cruci- 
fied also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried; 
and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and 
ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father. 
And He shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and 
the dead ; whose kingdom shall have no end. 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 85 

And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life, who 
proceedeth from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and 
the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spake by the 
prophets. And I believe one Catholic and apostolic church. I ac- 
knowledge one baptism for the remission of sins. And I look for the 
resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen. 

Note.—" God of God" and "very God" mean the same as the phrase 
" of one substance with the Father." 



CHAPTER XL 

THE PAPAL PERIOD (HILDEBRAND). 

From the sixth to the sixteenth century, Europe 
presented a spectacle, the like of which was never 
seen before, and will never be seen again. The 
papal church was the ruling power, not always in the 
ascendant, but ever vigilant, always active, and 
everywhere persistent. The shadow of the papacy 
gradually, but surely, extended in all directions, and 
fell, not only upon every visible object, but upon the 
most secret springs of human action. By its sanc- 
tion kings reigned, and by its fiat an army of priests, 
monks, friars and nuns encamped on the soil, and 
held the whole continent for its liege lord, the Pope. 
Europe was covered with ecclesiastical palaces, uni- 
versities, churches and cloisters as by a network 
which inclosed and held fast every living thing. 

We have seen what changes were wrought in the 
condition and character of the Church by the con- 
version of Constantine and the consequent establish- 
ment of Christianity as the religion of the state. 
As this establishment led to riches and honors, so 
these in their turn paved the way for other changes, 
some for good and others for evil. 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 8? 

In the great cities, especially, the corruptions of 
society disgusted many devout souls who withdrew 
from the world and became monks, shutting them- 
selves up in monasteries, or in the caves of the 
earth. These monasteries differed from each other 
as much as the men who formed or signed their 
monastic or canonical rules. By such as were men 
of action and panting for adventures connected 
with associate missions, the gospel was carried into 
France in the fifth century, into England in the 
sixth, into Germany in the seventh and eighth, and 
into Scandinavia and Russia still later. Others tilled 
the soil and reclaimed the land from swamps and 
forests. But this original spirit of self-denial and 
early activity declined. The love of learning suc- 
ceeded to the love of labor, and a love of ease and 
luxurious living, to both. But corrupt as many of 
the monasteries became, there is no doubt that their 
corruptions were often greatly exaggerated by those 
who expected to be, and finally were, enriched by 
their suppression. 

What has been said of monasticism, in its various 
forms, will apply to the papacy. It grew up and pre- 
vailed as monasticism did. The times were full of 
perils, without and within. Without, was the false 
prophet rapidly advancing on Christendom from the 
East, and threatening to overthrow it. Within, secu- 
lar princes were following the example of the Byzan- 



88 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

tine emperors, and seeking to subject the Church to 
the vicissitudes of their own policy. 

Such were the causes which incited the clergy to 
insure their independence by uniting under a com- 
mon spiritual chief or head. As always happens, 
when the time had come and affairs were ripe, the 
man appeared who organized and applied all the 
loose floating sentiments and aspirations of the age. 
That man was Hildebrand, commonly called Gregory 
VII. Born in Italy, he was educated at Clugny, and 
became a Benedictine monk. Even while a deacon 
his influence was greater than that of any contem- 
porary. Elected Pope, he enforced his views on all. 
His bitter feud and long war with Henry IV, emperor 
of Germany, ended in bringing that prince to Canossa 
in the guise of a penitent. Afterward, Gregory was 
driven from Rome by Henry, and died in exile, yet 
his spirit and ecclesiastical system survived him for 
centuries, and still live, though animated with less 
vigor. Hildebrand was the embodiment of the medi- 
aeval spirit, which reached its highest point when 
Henry, clothed in his penitential garb, humbled him- 
self before the Pope. It was in the depth of the 
coldest winter in the memory of man. The ground 
was covered with snow ; but colder than nature was 
the heart of Hildebrand. For three days he com- 
pelled the penitent prince to expose his bare head 
and feet to the wintry blasts, and condescended to 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 89 

admit him, at last, only at the earnest prayer of the 
Countess Matilda, by whose protection he was him- 
self sheltered from his enemies. 

" A man's foes shall be those of his own household." 
Hildebrand's experience furnished no exception to 
this rule. Henry was a rebellious son, whom he 
chastised for his own good and the contentment of 
his subjects, many of whom had rebelled against his 
tyrannical exercise of power, and so gave Gregory his 
grand opportunity to humble the emperor, and with 
him the imperial power, while he exalted himself and 
the pretensions and prerogatives of the papacy. The 
fruits of this vigorous policy remain even to our own 
day, and are visible in every national church which 
still wears the papal yoke. 

To carry out his plans and perfect the scheme 
which he had formed in his own mind, it was neces- 
sary to regulate the clergy, and restore order to the 
Church in all her borders. Bishops must be taught 
to regard the Pope as the head of their order — fons 
et origo — the fountain head and source of all their 
authority and jurisdiction. Princes must yield the 
right of investiture, or canonical instalment of the 
bishops to the Pope, as well as the previous preroga- 
tive of appointment. All orders of the clergy must 
be made to relinquish matrimony, as a state too 
worldly for their calling. The claims of the Church 
could not be adequately responded to without the 

5* 



90 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

sacrifice of this and every other earthly tie. Their 
reward was to be sought in the subjection of men's 
minds to the dominion of J:he Church, and in the en- 
joyment of ample revenues and estates, held as cor- 
porate property, transmissible to each succeeding 
generation. But even this inducement was insuffi- 
cient, and would have failed to enlist the enthusiasm 
of the priesthood, had it not been seconded by the 
untiring energy and unconquerable will of Hilde- 
brand. This iron will, guided by a clear conception 
of the drift both of the age in which he lived and the 
Church which he governed, enabled him to succeed 
where his less resolute predecessors had failed. The 
result was, that we shall search history in vain for a 
parallel of the career of this remarkable man. It is 
true that all things conspired in his favor. " The 
stars in their courses " fought for Gregory. The 
vices of the emperor, the superstition of the people, 
the irregularities of the clergy, the aspirations of the 
faithful, the fanaticism of the monks, the divisions of 
Italy, the rivalry of princes, the ambitions of priests, 
— all these and many other forces contributed to the 
establishment of papal rule as the source and neces- 
sary sanction of all other rule in Church and State. 
The Pope was generally regarded as that " spiritual 
man " whom the apostle describes as judging all, but 
himself judged of none. The claim of infallibility 
for the Pope had been cautiously advanced before, 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 91 

but from this time it was urged openly, though it 
never received the formal sanction of a council call- 
ing itself general, till our day (1870). 

Among the fables invented to prop up the power 
of the popes, we must reckon the pretended " Dona- 
tion of Constantine " to Pope Sylvester, according to 
which, the emperor gave Italy and Rome to this Pope 
and his successors. Having done this, he retired 
from Italy, and transferred the capital of civil govern- 
ment to Constantinople. " The Decretals of Isidore " 
denned the rights of the Church and clergy, carrying 
the power of the popes to unprecedented heights. 
These were both barefaced inventions of the ninth 
century, and could impose on none but the dark ages. 
They have long since been abandoned, even by 
Roman Catholic historians, some of whom, however, 
apologize for them as harmonizing with the senti- 
ments of the mediaeval church, and so were acquiesced 
in by all Europe. 

In point of fact, the emperors appointed civil gov- 
ernors of Rome as late as the middle of the eighth 
century, and Charlemagne was there crowned em- 
peror of the West, on Christmas day, a.d. 800. The 
grandfather of this great prince, Charles Martel, had, 
in the great battle of Poictiers (a.d. 732), arrested 
the progress of Mohammedanism, which then threat- 
ened all Europe. His father, Pepin, had also served 
the cause of the Church as then understood, while 



92 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

Charlemagne himself, descending into Italy, rescued 
the popes from the hands of their enemies, the Lom- 
bards, and was crowned emperor as a reward for his 
devotion to the Roman see, and in recognition of 
his sovereignty as successor to all the imperial powers 
ever possessed by the greatest of the old emperors. 

On the whole, Hildebrand must be pronounced, 
not only the greatest of the popes, but the greatest 
man of the middle ages. Charlemagne alone can be 
compared with him, but even Charlemagne falls far 
below the man who, though dying in exile, lived long 
enough to execute all his plans, which, in turn, were 
to prove as enduring as they were radical and far- 
reaching. 

Hildebrand, then, is to be regarded as the real 
founder of the papacy and that ecclesiastical system 
which is identified with the papacy. But as there 
were heroes before Agamemnon, so there were popes 
and able popes before Gregory VII, Such were Leo, 
and Gregory, called the Great, of the fifth and sixth 
centuries respectively. They prepared the way by 
grading the ground and getting together the material, 
but it was reserved for Hildebrand to build the 
spiritual temple which finds its visible expression and 
counterpart in the grandest of ecclesiastical structures, 
which had Bramante and Michael Angelo for its ar- 
chitects, and the wealth of Europe to furnish its 
precious stones and inlay its altars with gold. All 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 93 

things considered, the papal church, as Hildebrand 
fashioned it, must be looked upon as the most com- 
plete and comprehensive scheme ever devised for 
subjugating the human mind, and perpetuating its 
own dominion where it has once been acquired. The 
hierarchy of which Gregory's successors are ever the 
head is a corporation so powerful that God's truth, 
as plainly declared in the gospel, can alone overthrow 
it. Human reason, unaided by revealed truth, has 
thus far uniformly failed in its efforts to burst the 
bonds which this hierarchy imposes upon it. 

But " the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word 
of God," is mightier than the mightiest of the sons 
of men, and has "pierced to the quick " this giant of 
the middle ages, made vainglorious by his successful 
resistance to all other adversaries. Even stones from 
" Siloa's brook" have been slung at him with deadly 
effect by those whom he has disdained as mere babes 
and striplings, and threatened to give as prey to the 
beasts of the field and the fowls of the air. 

It is also pertinent to remark in this connection, 
that the first formal and authoritative condemnation 
of the people's reading the Scriptures in their own 
tongue was pronounced by Hildebrand, in the case 
of the Sclaves, who solicited this boon in the 
eleventh century. Doubtless the Pope felt, instinc- 
tively, that this privilege, if granted, would prove 
fatal to the perpetuity of the system with which his 



94 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

name and pontificate were indissolubly connected. 
If so, the event justified his fears as well grounded ; 
for as soon as the Bible was circulated in a language 
understood by the people, they began to pull down 
the Church which claimed to be under the special 
sanction of St. Peter and secured to his successors. 
Account for it as one may, the fact is patent and 
undeniable that the diffusion of the Scriptures de- 
stroys this work of human hands by disclosing " the 
only foundation which God has laid," and declaring 
the name of Jesus as " the only name given under 
heaven among men whereby we must be saved." 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE PAPAL PERIOD. (INNOCENT III, BONIFACE VIII, 
JULIUS II). 

The principles of Hildebrand (Gregory VII) were 
professed, and his policy adhered to, by all the popes 
who succeeded him, but by none with so much reso- 
lution, ability and consistency as by Innocent III, 
Boniface VIII, and Julius II. These three popes were 
the most illustrious of Hildebrand's successors. 
They shared his views, partook of his temper, and 
had the same fixed purpose of exalting the papal 
power above all others. All three were men of great 
ability, and were endowed with the heroic qualities 
which made the old Romans masters of the world. 
Innocent III was inferior to Hildebrand only. He 
surpassed all others in those talents which insure 
success in the born rulers of men. Advanced to the 
papacy while yet in the vigor of early manhood (a.d. 
i 198), he exercised absolute power with almost uni- 
form success, for eighteen years (till 12 16). Through- 
out his reign he pursued a far-reaching policy, dis- 
played boundless ambition, and was unscrupulous in 
the use of means. His first efforts were directed to 
the expulsion of foreigners from Italy, and to secure 



96 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

the union of the peninsula under his own sway. 
After this he proceeded to reduce emperors and 
kings to a condition of vassalage to himself, and also 
to his successors, if they should possess the nerve 
requisite to enforce his principles. 

Frederic II of Germany was Innocent's most diffi- 
cult subject, but, by encouraging his rivals, the Pope 
succeeded in controlling him, and making him sub- 
servient to the papal policy. 

Philip Augustus of France was proud and head- 
strong, but Innocent put the bit in his mouth, and 
curbed him completely by taking the part of his 
wife, who had been unjustly divorced. 

Sancho I of Portugal braved the Pope's pretentions 
for a little while, but was soon glad to receive his 
pardon, and be restored to his favor, on condition of 
confessing that he held his kingly power from the 
Pope and from no other. 

King John, the contemporary English king (a.d. 
1207), had an experience more bitter and humiliating 
than any of his royal brothers. A disputed election 
gave Innocent the opportunity (for which the popes 
were ever on the alert) to interfere in the selection 
of an archbishop for the see of Canterbury. His 
influence with the canons secured the appointment 
of Stephen Langton, a man admirably qualified for 
the office. The fact that he was so, proved a suffi- 
cient reason to prejudice the king against him. Inno- 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 97 

cent at once deposed him from his kingly office, and 
thrust him aside ignominiously (a. d. 1209). Then it 
was that the king behaved as basely as before he had 
haughtily. Humbling himself in the dust, he con- 
sented to receive his kingdom back as a fief of the 
papacy (a.d. 12 13). But this was more than the 
nobles of England could stand. Their English 
phlegm was fairly aroused, and they soon extorted 
Magna Charta (the great charter) from their pusil- 
lanimous king, and thus was laid the foundation, of 
the liberties of the realm. The Pope endeavored to 
coerce the will of the nobles, but in vain. 

In England, then, Innocent received his first check, 
and this was the beginning of a resistance to papal 
pretentions which has not yet culminated. Seeing 
his end near, Innocent called a council (the fourth 
Lateran), in which measures were taken to hold and 
extend the advantage acquired by this great Pope. 

In a. D. 1294, nearly a century after the accession 
of Innocent, Boniface VIII, a man of kindred temper, 
became Pope, and made a strenuous effort to revive 
the good old times of Gregory VII, and of Innocent 
III, but it was too late. There was no want of talent 
or of vigor, but times had changed. The lapse of a 
century disclosed the elements of a new world, a new 
order of things. The Pope made war upon another 
Philip, but this time the French nobles and people 
sided with the king and not with the Pope. The king 



98 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

was indeed thrice armed, because his quarrel was just. 
But it is probable the result would have been the same 
in any case, for it was determined mainly by the new 
spirit of nationality which was beginning to animate 
all the nations of Europe. 

Boniface laid France under an interdict, as Inno- 
cent had England in the days of King John, but with 
far different results. The Pope himself fell before 
the wrath of the French, and after submitting to the 
ignominy of imprisonment, he died of a broken 
heart, Oct. 11, a. d. 1303. Yet Boniface was one of 
the greatest of the popes, a true son and worthy suc- 
cessor of Hildebrand, but he was born too late in the 
world's history to enable him to do what both Gregory 
VIII and Innocent III had done, not only with impu- 
nity, but with almost perfect success. 

The last great pope was Julius II, who came to 
the papacy just two hundred years after the death of 
Boniface (a. d. 1503). A Genoese by birth, he was 
of an open but irascible temper, which was further 
tried and embittered by the difficulties of his posi- 
tion and the evil days on which he had fallen. The 
papacy had been reduced to its lowest state by the 
crimes of his predecessor, Alexander VI, whose son, 
Caesar Borgia, was the moral monstrosity of the age, 
the shame of Europe, of Italy, and above all of the 
Pope himself, who was destined to die of poison, pre- 
pared by the hand of his own son. Julius was a very 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 99 

different man from the Borgias, father and son. His 
ruling passion was to drive the foreigner from Italy. 
He was the soul of the League of Cambray, formed 
against Venice, then the haughtiest of republics, and 
he afterward, by the aid of other powers, expelled the 
French from Italy. He was, however, too old to 
continue this warfare, and died (a. d. 15 13) after 
holding the reins of power ten years, at a time 
when he was meditating great things for what he 
doubtless believed the interests of Italy and the 
Church of which he was the appointed head, albeit he 
was an ambitious statesman of high calibre, and a 
doughty warrior. 

Julius was succeeded by Leo X of the house of 
Medici, a man of learning, refinement, and easy tem- 
per. He was, however, wholly unfitted to carry out 
the plans of Julius II, or to check the rising spirit of 
reform which was soon to show itself in overwhelm- 
ing force, bursting all the bands by which it had been 
controlled down to that age. 

Infantile Europe had grown to manhood, and could 
no longer be held by the old leading strings. Even 
the papal interdict, in its most awful form, now failed 
of its object, which was to move a people to rebel 
against their prince when his resistance to papal de- 
mands deprived them of their most valued religious 
privileges. This was indeed a fearful weapon of the 
popes, and they often employed it with fatal effect. 



100 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

When milder measures had failed, the interdict fol- 
lowed, which closed the churches and silenced the 
clergy. All through the land, the church bells ceased 
to be heard, the organ no longer led the devotions of 
the people, the altar was deserted on which the priests 
professed to offer a full and sufficient sacrifice for the 
sins of the penitent, the doors of the church were 
shut, and a solemn stillness reigned whereof old mul- 
titudes resorted at almost daily festivals, instituted 
for the edification of the faithful. Baptism and burial 
were the only rites permitted, and these were per- 
formed under circumstances adapted and intended to 
spread far and wide a feeling of discontent and deter- 
mination to seek reconciliation with Rome at any 
price. 

If this seems strange, we must remember that 
throughout Europe, the belief was held that without 
the Church as then constituted, with the Pope as its 
infallible head, there was, and could be, no salvation. 
The rites and ceremonies of the Church must be ad- 
minstered by a priesthood possessed of " the power 
of the keys," which they held from. St. Peter through 
the Pope of Rome. Communion with and submission 
to the bishop and Church of Rome was deemed essen- 
tial to the validity of sacred functions, which would 
lose all their efficacy, directly they failed to receive 
the sanction of the Pope. Hence the power of the 
papal interdict, which for ages hung over the nations 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. IOI 

of Europe as a black cloud, and often fell on them 
with all the terror of a thunderbolt. 

Such was the spiritual thraldom of the European 
peoples in the middle ages, a condition of things 
rendered possible only by the thick darkness in which 
not only the masses, but the nobility and even the 
clergy, were sunk. For the priests knew nothing of 
the Scriptures in their original tongues, nor yet of 
the Vulgate, or Latin version, except such portions 
of it as entered into the routine of Church services. 
How this darkness was gradually enlightened, and 
this ignorance dispelled, will be shown in the next 
and following chapters. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

REFORMERS BEFORE THE REFORMATION. THE DAWN 
THAT PRECEDED THE DAY. 

The structure of mediaeval society was as balanced 
and minute as clock work, and moved with equal 
precision. This scheme of society was the vastest, 
most subtle, and most complete ever devised and 
made to work. So marvelous was it, that our modern 
positivist philosophers propose to copy it when they 
come into power, and the organization of social 
forces is committed to their hands. But doubtless 
their copy would prove a poor parody, a contempt- 
ible travesty. Such grand, visible organizations 
spring from an inward life, and can be vitalized only 
by the forces which originate them. These forces in 
the middle ages were tremendous, irresistible, and 
far reaching. They extended to the remotest cor- 
ners of Europe, penetrated into the most secret re- 
cesses, and controlled all sorts and conditions of men, 
from the king on his throne to the peasant in his 
mud hovel. But, after all, it was a yoke which 
neither our fathers, nor we, were able to bear. In 
this, it was like the old Jewish yoke, and like that, it 
was changed for an easier yoke and a lighter burden. 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 103 

The mediaeval church was seen at its best in the 
vigorous exercises of its mighty prerogatives from 
Hildebrand to Innocent III, after which the system 
gives unmistakeable signs of decline and decay. The 
causes which led to this decline, and so prepared the 
way for the great changes of the sixteenth century, 
will now engage our attention. 

Of these, we may mention among the first in im- 
portance, as of time, the Crusades. Though under- 
taken in defense and for the extension of prevailing 
ideas and institutions, as often happens in this world, 
the issue was something quite different. 

A wider experience and further knowledge of men 
and manners was acquired, and this prepared the 
way for further enlightenment. But this light was 
far from favorable to civil or ecclesiastical despotism. 
Isolation from the rest of mankind and ignorance of 
the world at large are conditions essential to the 
maintenance of all arbitrary systems, and hence the 
first effort of their defenders is to discourage, in 
every way, all intercourse with those whom they are 
pleased to call "outside barbarians." When influence 
fails to secure this isolation, laws are enacted to en- 
force it. From the date of the Crusades, Europeans 
and their descendants in America have engaged in 
voyages and travels to the most remote regions of 
the habitable earth, and we are indebted to these 
Crusades for no small share of this spirit of adventure 
and its attendant benefits. 



104 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

The long residence of the popes at Avignon served 
to estrange the Italians, who regarded Avignon as a 
second Babylon. Next in order, therefore, the Baby- 
lonian captivity, as historians call it, may be assigned 
as a powerful cause of the decline of papal influence. 

Other causes to be noticed, were the growth of a 
national life and spirit, the development of modern 
languages, the cultivation of a national literature, and 
the revival of ancient learning. The last named was 
intimately connected with the fall of Constantinople, 
which was surrendered to the Turks about the middle 
of the fifteenth century. The scholars of that city 
fled into Italy with their precious treasures, and be- 
gan that revival of classical literature which has con- 
tinued until this day, the fruits of which we trust will 
never be lost to the world. The rise of free cities 
and a middle class, may be added as new factors. 
But far beyond any of these causes, more potent and 
more wide-reaching, was the invention of printing 
about the middle of the fifteenth century, — an inven- 
tion which even in its infancy united the vigor of 
Hercules with the hundred arms of Briareus, and 
like Antaeus was unconquerable on its own ground. 
Scholars at once availed themselves of this new art 
to instruct the nations, by multiplying books, which 
soon found their way all over Europe. 

A reformation of the Church in its head and its 
members, had long been the rallying cry of a liberal 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 105 

reforming party throughout Europe. This was the 
avowed object of the three great councils of Pisa, 
Constance, and Basle, in the fifteenth century. But 
what these and all other councils, however great, 
failed to do, was effected at last by individual efforts. 
First came Wyclif, in the fourteenth century, who 
translated the Bible into English, denied that the 
Bishop of Rome had any rightful jurisdiction in Eng- 
land, advised the withholding of Peter's pence, and 
began to preach those doctrines since called evangel- 
ical. In the fifteenth century, John Huss took up 
Wyclif's work in Bohemia, and, after sowing far and 
wide the seeds of a similar reformation, suffered 
death by the decree of the council of Constance, into 
whose power he was delivered by the treachery or 
the fears of the Emperor Sigismund. 

In the latter part of the same century, Savonarola, 
with the zeal of an apostle and the fiery boldness of 
a Hebrew prophet, denounced in Italy the corrup- 
tions of society and the Church, not sparing even 
the Pope, because, like Peter of old, "he was to be 
blamed. " 

In connection with these popular movements, other 
causes were at work, not so visibly, but more efficient- 
ly, as, the revival of the study of the Hebrew and 
Greek languages, under the leadership of Reuchlin, 
the first Hebraist of the time, and the publica- 
tion of the first edition of the New Testament in 
6 



106 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

Greek, by Erasmus, the most celebrated classical 
scholar of the age. 

In due time Tetzel appeared in Germany, offering 
indulgences for sale on such scandalous terms as 
aroused the fiery wrath of Luther, who, with Melanc- 
thon in Germany, Zwingle in Switzerland, Calvin in 
Geneva, and Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley in Eng- 
land, carried enough of the princes, priests, and people 
with them to secure the establishment of the reformed 
churches in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Switzer- 
land, Holland, and England. 

Henceforth Europe is divided into two camps, only 
the Latin half, as it were, continuing an organic 
connection with the see of Rome, and this part of 
the Church underwent marked changes, which im- 
parted a new vigor and enabled it to enter upon a 
new career. Nor can we fairly claim that all the 
changes introduced in other countries have proved 
an unmixed blessing. Liberty in Church or State is 
a great boon, if the people are prepared for it, and are 
able to regulate it by law, but it may easily, and often 
does, degenerate into discord, license, and anarchy. 
Disruption of old ties, the abandonment of an ancient 
faith, is always an event of the first magnitude, and 
usually followed by excesses, unless the effervescence 
of the new wine is regulated in new bottles better 
than it could be in the old. 

The advocates of ecclesiastical tyranny argued then 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 107 

as the advocates of political despotism have since, 
and do now, in such countries as Russia, that the 
safety of society is bound up with it and depends 
upon it. Their claim has always been that a few 
were born to rule, and the duty of all others is to 
obey the few. But experience has not confirmed the 
truth of the theory. The history of the last three 
hundred years demonstrates that the interests of 
Church and State are best promoted by giving all 
classes a representation in their government. The 
democratic idea cannot indeed be realized without 
the prevalence of popular education, but it is the 
genius of Protestantism to diffuse knowledge among 
all classes as the only basis on which it can stand. 

Morality is doubtless bound up with religion, and 
religion, as taught in the New Testament, presup- 
poses personal inquiry, intelligence, and conviction. 
The gospel can be truly preached, received, and ap- 
plied only among a people who are accustomed to 
think and act for themselves. The mediaeval clergy 
treated the people as children, the modern as men. 
How the change was made from the one system to 
the other, from the mediaeval to the modern, the Papal 
to the Protestant, will be the subject of our next 
chapter. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE REFORMATION. 

The idea of reformation in the Church was old 
long before the fact. The need of it had been sorely 
felt for centuries. Plans to promote and secure it 
had been proposed by many persons eminent in the 
Church and in the State, but up to the sixteenth 
century, none of these had prospered. In Florence, 
Savonarola had made a great stir, and, for a few years, 
Italy and the papacy seemed on the eve of a great 
revolution. But, as often before and afterward, in 
Italy and elsewhere, means were found and measures 
successfully taken to prevent the good seed becoming 
rooted, or, where it had sprung up, to nip the flower 
in the bud. Savonarola, who sowed the seed, lost his 
balance, and began to do and say the very things his 
enemies must have desired him to do; and in this 
way he defeated his own plans, played into the hands 
of his unscrupulous foes, and had to surrender all his 
positions, a. d. 1598- 

The story of one, in the days that preceded the 
great Reformation of the sixteenth century, is the 
story of all. One after another they rose, and one 
after another they fell, though not all with equal sud- 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. IO9 

denness, or in the same manner. But all were 
defeated by ways and means familiar to the hier- 
archy, whose head was the pope, — ways and means 
to which the hierarchy invariably resorted, and which 
always succeeded with a people sunk in ignorance and 
steeped in superstition. The nearest approach to 
success was that attained by Wyclif in the four- 
teenth century, two hundred years before actual suc- 
cess. 

The English people had never entirely succumbed 
to the papacy. Papal pretentions and exactions had 
been grudgingly allowed, and often resisted. The 
Church of England, even in acts of Parliament, had 
always been styled, "Ecclesia Anglicana," but never 
"Romana." English kings had been popular in pro- 
portion to their insular and independent spirit, and 
this remains true of English statesmen down to our 
own times. Wyclif, therefore, did but act his part as 
a true-born Englishman in denying the claims, as 
well as defying the power, of the Pope. What is 
remarkable and most worthy of admiration is the 
thoroughness with which he did his work. A truly 
admirable thing it is, and one that marks the sa- 
gacity, depth, and courage of this man, that he should 
have seriously attempted to tear up the Upas tree of 
popery by the roots, leaving nothing that could spring 
up to trouble further the realm of England. Wyclif 
had the astuteness to see, and the boldness to de- 



IIO EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

clare, that the Pope had no authority in England, 
and hence no business to be there in any form or 
degree. He, accordingly, not only denounced papal 
prerogatives as exercised by the popes through their 
legates and other emissaries, but inveighed against 
the payment of Peter's pence, the sale of indulgences, 
the exaction of money by priests who pretended to 
be able to pray .souls out of a purgatory which they 
had invented for their own profit, and which had no 
existence save in the fears of the superstitious. 
Wyclif also assailed the authority of tradition, and 
asserted the sole authority of the Bible in matters of 
faith. He held to the doctrine of justification by 
faith, while he maintained the necessity of works as 
the only proper evidence of faith. With St. James, 
he taught that faith without works is dead, and, 
therefore, can save neither men nor devils. In a 
word, Wyclif was a thoroughly evangelical Christian 
in the strictest sense of the word, rejecting all the 
superstitions of the dark ages and the inventions of 
the papacy, while he contended valiantly for the faith 
once delivered. Thus, he contemned the so-called 
" sacrifice of the mass " as a dangerous deceit and blas- 
phemous fable, while he believed that the death of 
Christ on the cross was "a perfect, full, and sufficient 
sacrifice for the sins of the whole world." 

But, after all, Wyclif was one "born out of due 
time." Neither the world nor the Church was ripe 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 1 1 I 

for the Reformation. True, the gospel was widely 
preached in his day, and truly received by thousands 
to the breaking down, at least of the outworks of the 
papacy. Nor was the influence of Wyclifs ministry 
lost after his death. It continued to bear fruit, more 
or less, till the day dawned. Like John the Baptist, 
Wyclif prepared the way for a revolution, an actual 
achievement greater than his own. Hence he is 
called, and justly called, "the morning star of the 
Reformation, " of which he was the herald and forerun- 
ner, but which he did not live to see established. 
His ashes were disinterred by an order of the council 
of Constance ancTcast into a brook, a branch of the 
Avon. "And thus this brook did convey his ashes 
into Avon, Avon into Severn, Severn into the narrow 
sea, and this into the wide ocean. And so the ashes 
of Wyclif are the emblem of his doctrine which is 
now dispersed all the world over." 

The kindred work done by John Huss, born a. d. 
1373, we have already noted. Huss nourished in the 
fifteenth century, and in another country. He took 
the torch from the dying hand of the great English- 
man, and passed it on to one who had the happiness 
of holding it so high and steady that its light was 
seen from afar, even by the most distant nations of 
Europe. 

To Luther it pleased God to give the opportunity, 
the strength, the courage, and the perseverance to 



112 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

succeed where all others had failed, and to perform a 
work whose fruits remain, and will doubtless survive 
to the end of the world. As we gaze upon this work 
we may well be astonished, for no man living can 
measure its greatness. No man before had had any 
permanent success in similar attempts, and the reasons 
of their failure are neither obscure nor far to seek. 
The European people were designedly kept ignorant, 
to be preyed on by princes and priests. The double 
organization which held them down was the most 
perfect and powerful which had ever been invented. 
All the wealth, the learning, and the talent of Europe 
were wielded in the interests of the existing order. 
Spies were in every city, in every church, every house. 
The first signs of dissent were noted and instantly 
transmitted. The first movements were crushed be- 
fore they had time to gather strength. 

In this way, Savonarola in Italy, Huss in Bohemia, 
Wyclif in England, and a thousand lesser lights were 
snuffed out. In this way, all the reforming councils, 
notably those of Constance and of Basle, had come 
to naught. Huss was martyred by the so-called 
liberals of a reforming council, to drown the fears 
and silence the objections of the conservatives. If 
such were the tender mercies of the most enlightened 
and liberal, what chance had a true reformer if he fell 
into the hands of the bigoted. 

The truth is, there was a great deal of talk about a 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. II3 

reformation of the Church. That a reformation of 
some sort must be had, or religion perish, was admit- 
ted by all thoughtful and intelligent observers. But 
what was the idea of reformation generally inculca- 
ted ? It was a reformation of the Church " in her 
head and in her members, " i. e., a reformation of 
" manners and morals, " including a pruning of super- 
stitious observances. All this was to be effected, 
however, without any change in the prerogatives of 
the hierarchy. The order and offices of the Church 
were to be carefully preserved and perpetuated. No 
change was to be made in the general polity of the 
Church, or principle of worship. 

One point only of this kind was to be settled, viz., 
the relation of the popes to general councils. Were 
the popes, or the councils, the repository of supreme 
power ? In case of conflict, which must yield ? The 
decision then was that the popes must. Now a 
different doctrine is taught. As late as 1870, this 
decision was reversed, and the Pope for the first time 
in history was decreed by a council to be "infallible 
in faith and morals. " Doubtless this decision, 
though given for the first time at this late day, is 
the logical and only logical conclusion of the whole 
matter. 

If Peter was the chief, the head of the apostles, 
authorized to guide and control them in difficult and 
doubtful cases, and if the Bishop of Rome, for the 
6* 



114 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

time being, is the undoubted successor of Peter, en- 
dowed with all his authority, what other power can 
equal his, or who shall be so bold as to deny this 
authority ? Who that is a Christian will presume to 
doubt it ? No one can safely or consistently, if the 
chain of argument be sound. But this is precisely 
what Luther was bold enough to deny, as Wyclif had 
two centuries before Luther. 

It was an unparalleled act, all things considered, 
for Luther had both been in Rome, and was in greater 
personal peril than Wyclif was at any time. This 
man had the fate of Huss before his eyes, and had 
only too much reason to fear the same for himself. 
But he did not hesitate, nor waver, nor draw back, 
but carried the war into the heart of the enemy's 
country. For, indeed, it was a struggle in which only 
the bravest and the boldest could succeed. And 
Luther, brave as he was, would have been put down, 
had not God "made him to stand." This was so 
evident, that Luther could say, in all sincerity, that 
he believed " he was well known, not only on earth, 
but in heaven and hell, not only by men, but by angels 
and devils, as having been sent of God to effect a 
reformation of His Church." It was this persuasion 
that enabled him to declare at the Diet of Worms 
( a. d. 1 521 ), in the presence of prelates and princes, 
" Unless I am refuted and convinced by proofs from 
the holy Scriptures, or by plain, lucid, and evident 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. I 1 5 

argument, I yield my faith neither to the Pope nor to 
the councils alone, for it is clear as the day that they 
have frequently erred and contradicted each other. 
Until so convinced, I can and will retract nothing, 
for it is neither safe nor expedient to act against con- 
science. Here I stand, I can do nothing else ; God 
help me ! Amen. " 

Acting on this declaration, Luther achieved the 
success denied to his predecessors, either because the 
time was not yet, or because their conceptions were 
less clear, and consequently their schemes of refor- 
mation were less radical, including only an improve- 
ment of "morals and manners." The reformation 
that Luther proclaimed, and which God effected 
through him, was a radical reformation, a reformation 
of both morals and worship, based on a new concep- 
tion of Christianity, which, however, was not new, 
but as old as the apostles. It was a revival of apos- 
tolical Christianity, and a return to the methods of 
the apostolic church. 

We can now see that no other reformation was 
possible or desirable. The issue once joined was 
fought out on these lines. The contest was bitter, 
and for a long time doubtful in the eyes of men. But 
in the eye of God, it was not doubtful. He guided it 
to its conclusion. This was not, indeed, such a con- 
clusion as we should have anticipated, for God's ways 
are not our ways, nor His thoughts our thoughts. 



Il6 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

Truth will triumph, but not at once, nor in all the 
earth at its first proclamation. Enough that we are 
assured that the trees of God's planting shall not be 
rooted up, and that the Reformation was one of these 
trees. Small as a grain of mustard seed in the 
beginning, it is destined to grow till all nations repose 
under its protecting and refreshing shadow. And 
Luther was as decidedly first among the reformers as 
Paul was first among the apostles, but he no more 
stood alone than Paul did. Melancthon, Staupitz, 
and Carlstadt in Germany, Calvin in Geneva, Zwingle 
in Zurich, Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley in England, 
were faithful men, eminently fitted to push on the 
reformation which Luther had so well begun. 

There are many great names in history, but since 
the days of the apostles, there has been no clearer 
head or bolder heart, firmer faith or grander work 
than Luther's, and he will forever be remembered and 
honored as the hero of " the great Reformation." 



CHAPTER XV. 

CHURCHES OF THE REFORMATION. 

The characteristic feature of the Roman Catholic 
| church is uniformity ; that of the Protestant churches 
'• is unanimity. Uniformity relates chiefly to polity, 
discipline, and worship, — external features, which ad- 
dress themselves to the outward senses, and so are 
readily made subjects of legislation. But though 
rules are easily made concerning these matters, they 
have been enforced with great difficulty, and only 
after ages of persecution. It ought not to surprise 
or alarm us, therefore, to learn that the ideal stand- 
ard of Protestantism is found to be still more difficult 
of attainment. Opinions angl beliefs are subject to 
greater variations than manners and customs, even 
when these are not enforced by an authority to which 
all bow down. Add, then, the fact that while the 
mediaeval church ackowledged the binding force of all 
decisions made by popes and councils, the churches 
of the Reformation era refused to submit to those, or 
any merely human authority, and we have a sufficient 
explanation of the u variations of Protestantism. " 

These variations are not without their disadvantages, 
and are often a source of weakness to the Protestant 



I 1 8 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

cause ; yet we are confident that the gain is far great- 
er than the loss. But for the fundamental principle 
u the right of private judgment," the superstitions of the 
dark ages would have survived to our own day, even 
as they do in those countries and communions where 
this right has not been strenuously maintained. 

The boast of absolute uniformity made by the un- 
iformed churches of Christendom does not disturb 
us. Where they have peace and quiet, there is a 
corresponding absence of life and mental activity. 
The exercise of the grandest faculties of man is sup- 
pressed, to secure the doubtful blessing of a lifeless 
uniformity and the abject submission of man to his 
fellow. 

We have only to compare those ages and countries 
in which the principle of authority has been most 
fully enforced, with those in which the principle of 
free inquiry is admitted, to satisfy .ourselves that the 
latter is by far the safer. Ecclesiastics who claim 
and wield unlimited spiritual authority, enforce their 
despotic principles on communities at the expense of 
the highest interests and general welfare of 4 these 
communities. In this respect, there is no difference 
between them and temporal tyrants. They both 
convert a naturally prosperous country from " a fruit- 
ful field" to a desert, "and call it peace." Witness 
Turkey as an example of the one, and Spain of the 
other. These are among the finest countries in the 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. II9 

world, blessed with a fertile soil and delicious climate, 
but are both cursed with despotic rulers, the one 
temporal, the other spiritual. In vain, therefore, all 
the favorable conditions secured to the peoples of 
these countries by nature, for they are rendered null, 
made useless, by the madness of the false prophet in 
the one, and the arrogance of the exacting priest in 
the other. 

By common consent, Spain is a typical Popish, and 
Scotland atypical Protestant, country. Compare the 
two, and draw your own conclusions. Spain was the 
richest, the most fertile and valuable province of the 
Roman empire. Scotland is the least fertile portion 
of Great Britain. Her soil is thin, her climate harsh 
and damp. But what a contrast between Scotland 
and Spain. Scotland is as superior intellectually and 
morally, as she is inferior in natural advantages. 
Her material prosperity is greater still. Yet, before 
the Reformation, Scotland was the least civilized 
country in Europe, and the Scotch people were raised 
but little above the condition of savages. Other exam- 
ples equally decisive might be cited in the old world 
and in the new; but it is unnecessary. 

If systems of religion are to be judged by their 
fruits, we have abundant reason to be satisfied with 
the Reformation and the principles on which it was 
conducted. Our civil and our religious liberties are 
indissolubly connected. They arose together by the 



120 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

heroic efforts of the same men. They now stand, 
and they will continue to stand, or will fall together. 
They cannot be separated. The history of Europe 
and of the world proved this. 

We have, then, "a goodly heritage," and the lines 
have fallen to us in pleasant places, far beyond the 
highest conceptions of the psalmist. For prophets 
and kings desired to see the things which we see, but 
did not see them, at least to the extent of our privi- 
leges, Or the general prosperity of the Protestant 
churches. 

Let us not imagine, however, that these churches 
sprang into existence, or developed their best fea- 
tures, in a day or a year. Our present vantage 
ground has been reached only after a long struggle, 
maintained with varying success, and sometimes 
apparently though not really doomed to defeat. Not 
only have disasters been suffered, but the most seri- 
ous of these have arisen through the faults or imper- 
fections of trusted leaders. 

Every great cause must have its leaders, and the 
Reformation was no exception to the rule. To the 
leading reformers, we owe a great debt of gratitude. 
Under God, they did a great work, the greatest of any 
since the apostles. But they were not infallible, nor 
should we shut our eyes to their faults. The good of 
the cause requires that we should both see and note 
the mistakes which they made. Only in this way can 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 121 

we ourselves steer clear of the same, or of others sim- 
ilar to them. They were men of like passions with 
ourselves, and encompassed by many and great diffi- 
culties, difficulties and dangers far beyond ours. It 
is not strange, therefore, that all of them erred in a 
few things, or that a few should err in all things. 
The wisest and best are liable to err, and a few seem 
incapable of sound thinking, and so are always run- 
ning into extremes of one kind or another. 

The leading reformers were able defenders of the 
faith and expounders of the gospel; but they erred 
in urging doubtful points, not clearly revealed, with 
undue pertinacity. Lutherans and Calvinists did 
not, and perhaps could not, agree in their opinions 
touching the presence of Christ in the Lord's supper, 
the operations of divine grace, the relation of God's 
purposes to man's freedom. Differences of opinion 
on such abstruse points were common, and perhaps 
as inevitable as now. But for all men and all times 
there is no better rule than the ancient, viz., "In 
essentials, unity, in non-essentials, liberty, in an 
things, charity." This rule has, in all ages, been 
oftener dishonored in the breach, than honored ill 
the observance, but it still remains the safest rule, 
and the only one by which Protestants or Christians 
of any name or style can live and work together. 
While we mourn the perversity which so often has 
prevented its observance in the past, let us beware 



122 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

lest we transgress it ourselves. It is not extravagant 
to say that a simple adherence to this rule, so sound 
and reasonable, would have saved the churches from 
their most fatal schisms, and secured them tenfold 
greater prosperity and power. 

Again, the reformers were too ready to make alli- 
ances with the State, the practical effect of which 
was to make the Church subservient to the State, 
which aided it in the form of endowments and influ- 
ence. The union of Church and State is no doubt 
attended with some incidental benefit to each, but 
taken with all its consequences, it must be pronounced 
a source of weakness to the Church, and of danger to 
both Church and State. It is absolutely certain that 
the Church loses much more than she gains by such a 
union, and it is to be hoped that the experiment will 
never be tried in the United States. 

Another error of the reformed churches, was the 
undue prominence they gave to doctrinal teaching 
and belief, as compared with the Christian spirit and 
life. Sound doctrine is to be maintained, especially 
as to the essentials of Christianity ; but no degree of 
doctrinal soundness can atone for a neglect of the 
precepts and spirit of Christ. Yet for two centuries 
after the Reformation, the practical side of religion 
was comparatively overlooked, not so much in indiv- 
idual lives, as in the application of Christianity to 
society. Some most deplorable evils were acquiesced 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 1 23 

in without serious and earnest efforts to remove them. 
We refer to the ferocity and frequency of wars be- 
tween nations, and still more to the ignorance, 
oppression, and general degradation of large classes 
in every community. That the few should be allowed 
to hold down the many, the rich the poor, 
and the educated classes keep the people ignorant 
and debased on principle, and as a matter of policy, 
— these things cannot be regarded otherwise than as 
outrages against human rights, and utterly at variance 
both with the spirit and the precepts of the gospel of 
our Lord, who came to bless all men " by turning 
them from their iniquities " and bringing them to the 
acknowledgment and practice of the truth. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 

The centuries from the sixth to the sixteenth, we 
call " the dark ages, " — the ages of darkness, because 
the mental activity of the ancients had ceased, and 
modern thought had not begun. In a certain sense 
they were " ages of faith," but not in the highest or true 
Christian sense. They were rather ages of credulity, 
when men of all classes believed without questioning, 
whatever was taught them. The teachers were 
priests of the papal and Greek churches, who, in 
their turn, were, for the most part, as uncritical as 
their flocks. The first awakening was caused by the 
diffusion of scholars and books, chiefly in Italy, when 
Constantinople was taken by the Turks. The Cru- 
sades had not been fruitless at a still earlier period. 
The subsequent invention of printing, and the con- 
sequent cheapening of books, was another and much 
more powerful cause. Other influences were multi- 
plied, and the sum total of them prepared the way for, 
and made possible the great Reformation of the six- 
teenth century. 

The seventeenth century was the age of dogmatic 
theology, of positive and metaphysical systems of 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 125 

faith, — the age of catechisms and doctrinal drill 
pushed to an extreme. Sermons were often two 
hours long, and public prayers in proportion. Men 
thought they were heard for their much speaking, 
and Christianity was reduced to creeds. All things 
in heaven and earth were measured by the mind of 
man, and made into systems which seemed congru- 
ous to each church. 

Tridentine decrees, Augsburg confessions, and 
Westminister catechisms, were worked over, refined 
on, and applied with a sublime confidence in their 
efficacy to secure the Church and save the world. 
The appetite for these things grew by what it fed 
upon, but unfortunately the strength derived was by 
no means in proportion to the quantities consumed. 
The apostolic motto of " milk for babes," was quite 
forgotten, and only " the strong meat " of systematic 
theology was prescribed to all alike, — the young and 
the old, the weak and the healthy. The intention 
was good, but no number of good intentions could in- 
sure permanent and desirable results from such a 
partial and one-sided treatment of things human and 
divine. 

A reaction followed, that ran its course during 
the eighteenth century, which is justly regarded as a 
century of comparative moral and religious indiffer- 
ence. Skepticism in philosophy and religion sprang 
up in England, Scotland, Germany, and France. In 



126 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

Germany, Paulus, the first rationalist of note, pre- 
pared the way for Strauss and Renan, and the pes- 
simists of our day. In France, the encyclopedists 
became the favorites of society and the fashion of the 
age, and led the French people on to their bloody 
revolution. In Scotland, Hume laid bare the insecure 
foundations of Locke's philosophy, which indeed left 
both religious truth and all intellectual beliefs with- 
out certain foundations, because, according to Locke, 
all our knowledge is derived from experience through 
the bodily senses, which fail to verify the existence 
of non-sensible things. In England, the reaction 
was less violent than on the continent, but the cause 
of pure religion was assailed by bold men, who were 
avowed deists, denying the fact of revealed religion, 
till its truth was defended with consummate ability 
by Lardner, Paley, and Bishop Butler. These writers 
rendered inestimable service to revealed religion from 
an intellectual point of view, amply justifying its 
claims, and demonstrating its reasonableness and 
neccessity. But there remained yet a higher duty 
to be performed and a deeper work to be done. The 
argument for the evidences was on the surface, — 
satisfied men's minds, but did not save their souls. 
The head was convinced, but the heart was not con- 
verted. Hence, the form of godliness prevailed with- 
out the power. Nor was this formal but inefficient 
faith confined to the Church of England. The Pres- 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 127 

byterian church of Scotland, and even the Puritan 
churches of England and America, were in a similar 
state of Laodicean lukewarmness. 

What was wanted was, a new reformation, a 
reformation, not doctrinal, but practical and spiritual, 
a demonstration of the Spirit's power in the churches 
and the hearts of men, a new baptism of the Holy 
Ghost, such as John predicted to the Jews when 
Christ should come. And such a baptism was at 
hand, for the kingdom of God was soon to appear 
with power. The reality of religion was to be proved 
as of old, by producing the same fruits. In due time, 
God sent forth His servants as He had raised up the 
prophets, and sent forth the apostles. 

Whitfield and the Wesleys were men admirably 
qualified for the task imposed on them, and faithfully 
did they perform it. Their lifework is so familiar to 
all, that it is quite unnecessary to rehearse it here. 
Suffice it to say that, while John Wesley still lived, 
he was permitted to see the fruit of his labors, and 
the work of God prospering, not only among his own 
people, but in all the churches. The churches of 
Presbyterian order and those of Puritan descent, were 
among the first to receive the blessing, and to be 
revived by the good news of the gospel now pro- 
claimed again with all the fervor of their original 
founders. The great Church of England, too, finally 
participated largely in this grand revival of religion 



128 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

whose characteristic feature was the prominence 
given to personal or experimental religion as the one 
thing needful, without which all else is "as sounding 
brass and a tinkling cymbal." 

This was the teaching of Christ and His apostles, 
the glory of the apostolic epistles and church, but 
strangely suffered to be eclipsed by devotion to dog- 
matic systems which, taken by themselves, are dry as 
dust. We say this not to disparage, much less to 
deny, the importance of the Christian evidences and 
a form of sound words ; but the evidences of Christ- 
ianity are not Christianity itself. Sound doctrine is 
safe to hold, but must be vivified and vitalized to save 
the soul. 

In the course of this great revival of the reformed 
churches, other denominations have sprung up, none 
of which equal the Wesleyans and Baptists in num- 
bers or influence, but many of them have done yeo- 
man service to the cause of religion and humanity. 
Several owe their origin to a spirit of reaction from 
the extremes into which it would seem the best of 
men and systems are prone to run. That is to say, 
all men, even the best, are liable to dwell on certain 
truths, or certain aspects of truth, to the exclusion of 
other truths necessary to qualify and balance them. 
The consequence is a disproportion or distortion of 
the original truth, so that it becomes, in effect, more 
or less untrue, and needs to be redressed and modi- 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 1 29 

fied by a restatement of some other truth that had 
been overlooked or neglected. 

It is in this way, and because of this limitation of 
the human faculties, that no one system has yet been 
comprehensive enough to include all the truths of the 
Bible, and so to secure the undoubted assent and con- 
sent of the entire body of the faithful, who sincerely 
profess and call themselves Christians. 

If we analyse the principles which lie at the found- 
ation of Christian churches of all denominations, we 
shall find that they are reducible to three, known 
popularly and correctly as the principles of authority, 
of faith, and of human reason, or, again, as sacerdotal- 
ism, evangelicalism, and rationalism. All agree, 
indeed, as to the necessity of an ultimate and absolute 
authority. The main difference relates to the organ 
or organism by which divine authority is declared to 
men, and made obligatory on their consciences. 
According to some, this authority is committed to an 
order of men called a priesthood. This is the rule of 
a sacerdotal order, who, in some sort, mediate between 
God and men. In the Roman Catholic church, one 
of this priestly order, the pope, is believed to be 
Christ's special vicegerent on earth, representing 
Him, and exercising His authority as no other man 
does or can. There are others who reject the papal 
theory, and yet adhere to the principle of sacerdotal- 
ism, and therefore attach great importance to the 
7 



I30 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

ministrations of a priesthood, for which a tactual suc- 
cession from the apostles is claimed. 

Consistent Protestants of all shades agree in 
rejecting the sacerdotal theory of the ministry and 
sacraments, but they differ among themselves as to 
the relation of reason to faith. The generally 
received view is, that it is the office of reason to 
ascertain and affirm the evidences of revelation, and 
then to submit to the doctrines evidently, and by 
common consent, taught by revelation. The right of 
private judgment is not only allowed, but asserted. 
As a matter of fact, nearly all Christians who receive 
the Bible as the sole and sufficient authority, agree 
in the articles of their belief on all essential points. 
This is pretty good proof that the Bible is at unity 
with itself, and that the individual judgment is com- 
petent to determine what it teaches. 

How, then, does it happen that there are so many 
variations of Protestantism ? They arise, in part, on 
points which all agree are not so clearly announced 
as the cardinal doctrines of Christianity, or are mat- 
ters of taste and temperament, which, doubtless, have 
been too little restrained for the common good. 

Finally, it will be found that most of those who 
dissent from the substance of Christianity, as com- 
monly received, do so on the express ground of 
receiving nothing which the mind of man cannot 
measure, or verify. And this is rationalism, a princi- 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. I3I 

pie which is very prevalent, but actively applied in 
different degrees. Evangelical Christians do not 
allow that the Bible teaches, or that they believe, 
anything contrary to reason, but many things above 
our reason. 

These, then, are the three principles which under- 
lie and determine the three principal phases of Christ- 
ianity which have been accepted by men, and which 
still survive. On these three lines it would seem, 
therefore, that all churches are, or ought to be, consti- 
tuted, and there seems no valid or sufficient reason 
why all Christians should not definitely range them- 
selves under one or another of these three heads, 
and so place themselves as to be in accord and in 
communion with the sacerdotal, evangelical, or 
rationalistic wing of the Christian church. For, 
doubtless, all these are in some sense branches of the 
Christian church, and the only questions are, which 
one of them most truly and efficiently represents the 
teachings of the New Testament and the mind of 
Christ, and which will probably prevail in the final 
adjustment of the Christian religion to the wants of 
the world? "The different Christian denominations 
have proved their right to exist by flourishing, and by 
the evident tokens of the Divine blessing." {Glad- 
stone on Heresy and Schism.') 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

The eighteenth century was an age of reform and 
revolution, a transition period from old methods to 
new. The men of that age labored, and we have en- 
tered into their labors. One of the most striking of 
these results is the great change of the condition of 
the masses in respect to their temporal affairs. The 
improvement is most marked, of course, in our own 
country, for here all the circumstances are most 
favorable. But even in Europe, where it was once 
the settled policy of the upper classes to keep down 
the lower, this policy is no longer pursued with the 
resolution and tenacity of former times. All over the 
world, the toiling millions are daily becoming more 
aware of the great wrongs which have been done 
them, and are beginning to be conscious of their abil- 
ity to redress these wrongs. Hence the restlessness 
and revolutions which characterize the countries of 
Europe, and to some extent those of Asia as well. 
The field is indeed the world, which groaneth and 
travaileth in pain, and will find redemption both tem- 
poral and spiritual in accepting and acting upon the 
pure principles of the gospel. These principles have 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 1 33 

never yet been truly received, and faithfully applied 
in their various relations to all sorts and conditions 
of men. When they are so applied, the love of Christ 
in our hearts will work only good to our neighbors, 
and all men will endeavor to do unto others as they 
would have others do unto them. x In that happy age, 
the evils of ignorance and poverty will no longer 
remain to degrade a large part of mankind. 

The successful assertion of human rights in the 
political sphere, is another and scarely inferior proof 
of the improved condition of the civilized world. 
Here, again, our own country is in the van, reacting, 
however, on the old world by its successful example 
of a free, united, and properous country, where all 
classes enjoy their civil rights, and are equal before 
the law. If we are able to perpetuate our popular 
form of government, the day is not distant when it 
will, in substance, be adopted throughout Christendom, 
and in time throughout the world. 

Popular education is, at once, the cause and the 
concomitant of political liberty. Where the people 
are ignorant, they are, and can be, kept in* a state of 
both social and political servitude, superstitious in 
their religion, and the abject slaves of princes and 
priests. But give them education, and all races enter 
at once upon a career of improvement in every direc- 
tion. They are more intelligent as farmers, mechanics, 
and merchants. They improve all the implements of 



134 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

labor, and invent new ones. They also discover new 
principles and new methods of applying old ones. 
In fine, they soon learn the fact that " all men are 
born free and equal " in the sense of the declaration 
of independence, viz. : they have the same natural 
faculties, rights, and duties. The enjoyment of life 
and the pursuit of happiness, are rights common to 
mankind, and are to be secured to all without distinc- 
tion of race, color, or previous condition. 

Precisely here, however, the question arises how is 
this knowledge to be imparted, and how these rights, 
when understood, are to be successfully asserted ? 
History shows but one way, and that is the good way 
of the gospel. Liberty, in ancient times, meant the 
liberty of a few favored individuals, or races, or cities, 
to tyrannize over the less gifted and less favorably 
born and brought up. Christian liberty is the liberty, 
the right and the duty, of the fortunate and happy, to 
help the unfortunate and the unhappy, to instruct the 
ignorant, feed the hungry, heal the sick, comfort the 
afflicted, and to do good to all especially to the poor 
and needy*, and see that they have succor afforded 
and right done them. This is not the spirit of the 
world, nor of unregenerate man. But it is the spirit, 
the very essence and substance, of the gospel in its 
practical bearings on human society. Christianity 
has, indeed, a still more glorious message and is, 
therefore, in respect to man's spiritual nature, a still 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 1 35 

more glorious evangel. Far be it from us to ignore 
this higher purpose of God in sending His Son into 
the world to redeem it from the power, the habit, and 
the guilt of sin, which is a transgression of God's law, 
a law holy, perfect, just, and good, and which there- 
fore cannot be violated by any without the gravest 
consequences. The point we make here, as once be- 
fore, is this, that even Protestant Christians and 
churches, have often overlooked the practical present 
duties we owe to mankind in respect to their tem- 
poral well-being, which our blessed Savior loved to 
promote and did promote in so many ways. Our 
fathers set us a noble example in providing (for the 
first time) for the education of the whole people, and 
putting them on the road of universal progress. But 
there remain many evils to be suppressed, much 
ignorance to be enlightened, debasing habits to be 
abandoned, and depraved appetites to be overcome. 
Even in our own land, the number and power of 
influences abroad which are adverse, as well to the 
gospel as to the happiness of our people are truly 
appalling. And if our own countrymen were thor- 
oughly evangelized, and were living as Christians 
should live, the field is still the world. What a field 
in extent, and in the amount of labor required to 
subdue it ! Where are the men and women for mis- 
sionary work, in all nations, carrrying to all races the 
good news, imparting a knowledge of salvation, and 



I36 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

preparing the way for the amelioration of each and 
every race ? What shall we say to these things ? 
Who will dare counsel indifference or even delay ? 
Like the children of Israel, the Christian host is com- 
manded to " go forward, " till the land of promise is 
reached, entered, and possessed. 

Much has been done already, but much more 
remains to be done. " The more excellent way, " too, 
is plainly pointed out by the Christian agencies which 
have proved most successful. The formation of Bible 
and tract societies, the prosecution of missionary 
enterprises at home and abroad, Sunday-school and 
other unions for the more efficient propagation of the 
gospel in all parts of the country and of the world, — 
all these agencies have been approved of God, and 
are acceptable to most good men. 

Devout Christians in the nineteenth century should 
earnestly inquire how they can most successfully 
unite their forces for the further advancement of the 
Church of Christ in all lands. We are attached to 
our several churches, though in different degrees, but 
ought we not to lay more stress on the things in 
which we agree, than on those in respect to which 
we differ ? Are not the things in which we agree 
fundamental, and those about which we differ non-es- 
sential, proved so by the fact that other churches and 
Christians, who differ from us, are, nevertherless, as 
active, useful, consistent, devout, as we ? If we com- 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 1 37 

pare the Christian church in all its branches, with any 
other institution, comparison is greatly to the advan- 
tage of the church. But if we compare one Christ- 
ian denomination with another, even sectarian preju- 
dice can scarcely blind our eyes to the fact that, prac- 
tically and for all the purposes of the gospel, one de- 
denomination differs from another, only as one star 
differeth from another, each diffusing the same light 
and each displaying the power, wisdom, and goodness 
of God. 



7* 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE. 

The material prosperity, the growth of civil and 
religious liberty, the general diffusion of knowledge, 
— in fine, the advancement of mankind to a higher 
plane of being and action, makes it certain that old 
institutions must give way to new ones, or else adapt 
themselves to the new social and intellectual order. 
To this rule the Christian church, as an organization, 
is no exception. The revival of learning in the fif- 
teenth century made necessary the great reformation 
of the sixteenth, and prepared the way for it. The 
political and social revolutions of the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries determined the condition of the 
nineteenth century, and our age is confessedly a 
period of transition and not of settlement. We are 
in the way where old and different roads both meet 
and terminate, and we have to strike out a new path 
for ourselves. The experience of the past is highly 
valuable to us, and should be diligently heeded, but is 
not of itself conclusive. The world is awaking to a 
new life, and demands institutions corresponding to 
its new wants and aspirations. For the first time in 
the history of the world, all men are recognized as 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 1 39 

"born free and equal," with equal rights, privileges, 
and duties. All are striving to better their condition. 
This gives rise to a degree of general restlessness and 
activity before unknown. Men are impatient of 
restrictions and of authority, distrustful of those who 
assume to guide them, and resentful toward any pre- 
suming to dictate to them. For the present, this 
new order is unfavorable to the due influence of the 
Christian religion. Nevertheless, religion is "the 
one thing needful, " the supreme necessity of our 
nature, and no degree of worldly prosperity can sup- 
ply or supersede it. The highest attainments, the 
greatest discoveries in science, and unlimited tempo- 
ral prosperity, leave man as they found him, hungry 
and thirsty, and ready to exclaim of a life without 
God, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." Science 
cannot, and does not pretend to, solve the problems 
of man's higher nature, duties, and destiny. If these 
are revealed anywhere, it is in the Bible. The ques- 
tion comes back to us, then, how can the religion of 
the Bible be so presented to men in their new condi- 
tions as to arrest their attention, renew their hearts, 
and save their souls ? 

In attempting to answer this question, let us say 
at the outset, that we are not among those who look 
for an entirely "new" church, or believe such a 
church either possible or desirable. Even our politi- 
cal constitution grew out of the English, and all 



140 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

existing institutions have their roots in older ones, 
from which they sprang. Christianity itself, in its 
broadest sense, is not an exception to this rule, for it 
sprang up from Judaism, as Judaism was developed 
from the institutions of the patriarchs. 

As to Christianity, we have seen that it has existed 
and flourished under three leading forms, which really 
include all its visible manifestations to the world, 
viz., the sacerdotal, the evangelical, and the rationalis- 
tic. Is it not probable that one of these forms, or a 
modification of each, will prevail in the future ? And 
if one, which ? Will it be the sacerdotal ? This form 
of Christianity prevailed from the age of Constantine 
to that of Luther, and was perhaps suited to the 
times in which it flourished. It still survives in sev- 
eral countries, and has been revived even in churches 
called Protestant. Great efforts are made to intro- 
duce it into the new world, but so far from prevail- 
ing, we believe that it is certain to decline and disap- 
pear. It is at variance, total and hopeless variance, 
with our age, and will be still more antagonistic to 
the next and future ages. All the signs of the times 
are unfavorable to it, and the stars in their courses 
fight against it. Its assertion of exclusiveness, of 
authority, of a divine legation, will find but few 
adherents. Its past history will be fatal to it, for all 
over Europe it has been in alliance with, and the 
chief abettor of, tyranny and oppression in every 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 141 

form. Sacerdotalists, the world over, distrust the 
masses, deny the right of private judgment, favor 
only ecclesiastical education, and in a thousand ways 
set themselves against the spirit and tendencies of 
the times in which we live. We have no fears, 
therefore, of its acceptance by any considerable num- 
ber of the American people, or that it will linger 
many generations in Europe. It is certainly incon- 
sistent with our origin, our history, and the general 
drift of our people. The advocates of that system 
flatter themselves that the drift of the American and 
English people will be changed, and turned back into 
the old channels. But all who lay this flattering 
unction to their souls are destined to disappointment. 
No great historical race has ever had more marked 
characteristics than the English speaking race, and 
especially the American branch of this race. And 
we shall accomplish our destiny, and that in the 
direction we have taken both from circumstances and 
from choice. The past at least is secure, and the 
future will not belie our past. We shall not disown 
the work of our ancestors, nor number ourselves 
among those who count themselves transgressors, by 
building again what they had carefully destroyed. 
Like our fathers, we believe in the Bible and in 
Christ, and shall hold fast to the end our faith in 
both, and our right to interpret their teachings for 
ourselves, and transmit this right to those who come 



142 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

after us. This resolution will forever separate us 
from sacerdotal forms of the Christian faith, for it is 
of the essence of sacerdotalism to claim " the power 
of the keys of the kingdom of heaven," the doors of 
which are open and shut by priestly offices and 
authority. This is our opinion of the system, many 
of the advocates of which are personally men of 
probity and worth. 

On the other hand, our unfailing adherence to the 
Christian faith, as plainly revealed and generally 
received, removes us equally far from rationalism, 
which claims to modify the teaching of Christ as 
human reason shall seem to require. No doubt this 
type of Christianity has many sincere adherents, and 
is far more likely to prevail among us than the medi- 
aeval or sacerdotal. But there are good reasons for 
thinking that it will not prevail in the future rela- 
tively more than in the past. 

In the first place, it sprang up in New England 
under the most favorable conditions, and yet has 
scarcely held its own for two generations. The rea- 
son of this is not far to seek. Rationalism does not 
satisfy the human heart, and is unstable in all its 
ways. What the reason of one man, or one genera- 
tion, declares to be self-evident, the reason of the 
next man or the next generation declares to be quite 
unfounded in reason, and destitute of proof. The 
consequence is constant vacillation between ex- 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. I43 

tremes, leading often to a reaction from skepticism 
to superstition and the extremes of the highest sacer- 
dotalism. 

The old deists rejected revelation as wholly super- 
fluous, asserting the being of God, the separate exist- 
ence of the soul, and its immortality to be self-evi- 
dent truths. The new infidelity, whether called 
agnosticism, positivism, or pantheism, declares that 
we neither know, nor can know or prove, any positive 
belief of these or any unseen things. The objection 
to rationalism in religion is that, sooner or later, it 
leads to skepticism, to doubt and disbelief of all relig- 
ious truth. This is fatal. For what we want is " an 
anchor to the soul, sure and steadfast, entering into 
that within the vail," where Christ our forerunner 
has entered, and where He liveth to make interces- 
sion for us, Himself presenting the prayers of all who 
come unto the Father by Him. He is our only 
priest, the one mediator between God and man. We 
need no other, and will have no other, for "other 
foundation can no man lay than that is laid, Christ 
Jesus," the corner stone of our faith. And to whom 
can we go, but unto Him who alone hath the words 
of eternal life ? He is indeed our only hope, the only 
object of our faith, in whom we have redemption 
through His blood, shed, and freely shed, for us all. 

This is the faith of the ages, the old, old story of 
the gospel, which is also new, forever new, the same 



144 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

yesterday, to-day, and forever. We believe that 
Jesus was " He who should come, " according to the 
prophets, and we look for no other. Christ, then, is 
to be our Lord and Master in the future, as in the 
past. The only question is, how can we most suc- 
cessfully, effectively, and adequately proclaim and 
enforce this faith as the final religion of mankind ? 
And further, what modifications are needed in our 
existing systems and methods ? A few will reply that 
none are. But the most intelligent, thoughtful, and 
far-seeing are well aware that our present order is 
only provisional. Organization is the strong point of 
sacerdotalism, and the weak one of Protestantism. 
" The children of this world are wiser in their gen- 
eration than the children of light." So our Savior 
said, and how true it was, and still is. And shall 
there be no improvement in this respect ? Shall we 
learn nothing even from our opponents ? Can we 
afford to give them the great advantage which 
attaches to superior organization and tactics in their 
struggle for supremacy in this land ? If we are wise 
and understand the things which pertain to our pros- 
perity and peace, we shall not. But what more can 
be done ? Shall we abandon our present order, dis- 
band our churches, and give up all our organizations 
in the vain hope of forming a new church without the 
defects inherent in those to which we owe so much ? 
By no means. For this would, and could, end only 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 1 45 

in disappointment. Still, we can and ought to do 
something to make our churches more efficient, more 
in accord with the new age upon which we are entering. 
It would be presumptuous for any one to attempt to 
answer all the questions which arise in this connec- 
tion, or to solve all the difficulties of the subject. 
This fact, however should not deter us from looking 
these difficulties in the face, and seeking a solution of 
them which possibly we may find, in part, even now. 

First of all, to speak of the Bible, because in the 
order of thought it comes first. While it is true that 
its divine inspiration and authority are to be asserted, 
may we not, and ought we not to allow, without hin- 
drance, a greater diversity of views touching those 
questions which have already arisen, and will con- 
tinue to arise, concerning the relation of the Jewish 
dispensation to the Christian, the nature of inspira- 
tion, so that it is authoritative and final, and also 
whether it extends to secular events, names, dates, 
etc., or is limited to the communication of moral and 
religious truths which concern our relations to God. 

Secondly, the ministry, the Church, and the sacra- 
ments must be presented more in their practical, and 
less in their theoretical and metaphysical bearings. 
The necessity of this is evident from the change in 
the habits of our people in respect to church going 
and Sabbath observance. The religious observance 
of the Lord's day, including public worship, is by no 



I46 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

means so common as it was. What can we do to 
arrest this downward tendency and to awaken new 
interest in both ? Obviously, we must not fail to con- 
vince our fellow citizens of the great importance of 
the Lord's day as a day of rest from labor and pleas- 
ure seeking, as well as the intimate and probably 
indissoluble connection between the custom of pub- 
lic worship in the house of God, and the retention of 
those beliefs which lie at the foundation of what is 
most valuable and sacred in our social life and polit- 
ical institutions. The evil of which we speak, and 
which we would fain see corrected, is probably most 
common in the country, where the population is more 
scattered, and attains greater proportions from the 
want of unity of purpose. Surely it is the dictate of 
common sense that in such places, all real Christians 
should unite in building a church and supporting an 
acceptable minister, till some one denomination is 
strong enough to assume the responsibility. And in 
more populous communities a spirit of union should 
be encouraged rather than of division and discord. 

Much may also be done to improve the musical and 
other parts of the service, to make it more interesting 
and edifying. But precisely how far changes should 
be introduced, and of what, kind, must, of course, be 
left to the discretion and judgment of each church or 
congregation. What is necessary, above all, is that 
we hold to the head, which is Christ, who is over us 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. I47 

all and blessed forever. And happy are they who are 
not offended in Him, and hold fast to Him, in all 
things. He is the great Reconciler, reconciling us 
to the Father, to each other and ourselves, reducing 
all conflicting elements to order and harmony. 

The Church of the future is indeed a large subject, 
too large to be disposed of in a single chapter, or by 
any one man. Nevertheless, of what we have said, 
this is the sum. The Church of Christ in the future 
will not be generally, or largely, either sacerdotal or 
rationalistic, for the first of these principles is of the 
past, and now passing away under the enlightening 
influences and agencies of increasing civilization. To 
go back to mediaeval methods and institutions would 
be like turning our backs to the sun, that we might 
walk by the light of the moon. This is no mere 
figure of speech. In sacerdotalism, we have the light 
of the gospel as reflected by a body which has no 
light in itself, therefore cannot shed any light upon 
others except indirectly, after it has been modified 
and changed by passing through itself as a medium. 
Happily, the Sun of Righteousness has risen upon 
the world with healing in His rays, in which it is our 
privilege to rejoice and grow up as "trees of the 
Lord's own planting," which no priestly caste has the 
power to pluck up. 

To this generation, rationalism is a principle far 
more attractive than sacerdotalism. But rationalism 



I48 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

never has found, and never can find, general accep- 
tance, because too vague, uncertain, and vacillating. 

The Church, then, must be essentially evangelical, 
because this creed is clearly taught in the New Tes- 
tament, as conceded even by the most eminent ration- 
alists. It was faithfully and fully expounded by the 
apostles, especially by St. Paul, the greatest of the 
apostles, and has been held in substance by the faith- 
ful of all subsequent ages. This is the faith which 
has overcome the world in the past, and will over- 
come it in the future. But to do this in the future, 
it must be cleared of ambiguities and excrescences. 
Doctrinal formulas and metaphysical creeds must no 
longer be elevated and enforced as of equal authority 
with the teaching of the divine Word. What Chris- 
tians hold as the common faith must be maintained 
as essential, and their points of difference must be 
treated as subordinate to the higher interests of the 
gospel. 

In brief, the church of the future is to be developed 
on the same lines as the church in the past, only dis- 
carding more and more human authority, and adher- 
ing more and more closely to the teaching, the exam- 
ple, and the spirit of Christ. Christ is the one foun- 
dation on which we must all build, if our work is to 
endure when it will be tried as by fire. All else may 
be burnt up, if it stands in the way of this happy 
consummation, as of no permanent or real value. In 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. I49 

vain, we o*r others "teach for doctrine the command- 
ments of men." Christ is the substance of the Bible, 
the beginning and the end of the book which we be- 
lieve reveals the will of God to us. His salvation 
means a deliverance from sin, its guilt and power. 
While chiefly looking to the future and showing the 
way to a holy, endless life with and in Christ, the 
Gospel also is the great power of God for elevating 
the condition of mankind in this present world. 
Under its influence, the hoary despotisms of antiquity 
have disappeared, the nations are inspired with new 
hopes and aims, and the glorious liberty of the sons 
of God will yet be attained in the work and in the 
Gospel of Christ. 

Then will the Savior see the travail of His soul 
and be satisfied. No longer despised and rejected of 
men, He will reign Lord of lords and King of kings. 
In that day wars will cease, idolatry be abolished, slav- 
ery will no longer exist, ignorance will no longer pre- 
vail, poverty will be exceptional and quickly relieved, 
and the rights of man will be everywhere respected 
and easily defended, for " they shall not hurt nor 
destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord of 
hosts," a mountain which shall then fill the earth, 
inhabited by a holy seed of the Lord's own planting, 
which shall grow up before Him, a people prepared 
of the Lord. 



THE APOSTLES' CREED. 

FEW WORDS ON CREEDS. 

In submitting a few thoughts on the Apostles' 
Creed, I desire to preface them by some preliminary- 
remarks on creeds in general. 

Some persons are disposed to question the value 
of creeds, while others go so far as to decry them, 
and deny that they serve any good purpose, or have 
any use other than to bind men's consciences and 
suppress freedom of thought. The fact, however, is 
that all forms and degrees of belief and of unbelief, 
imply a creed. The one real question is, shall this 
creed be expressed in terms, written down, printed, 
and subscribed to by those whose faith it symbolizes. 
If one believes in God, that belief is a creed in the 
original and proper sense of the word. "Credo," "I 
believe." And if one does not believe in God, even 
that is a creed, i. e., it is a belief that there is no God. 
Strictly speaking, then, the unbeliever has a creed, as 
well as the believer. The former has the disadvan- 
tage, however, of having a negative creed. 

Creeds, then, are a necessity of our nature and sit- 
uation, and, indeed, of all intelligent beings, all beings 
who think. The real points at issue relate to the 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 1 5 1 

extent and character of creeds. How far shall they 
go? What propositions shall they include, and in 
what terms shall they be expressed ? Here we have 
questions on which men may and do differ. Experi- 
ence, however, seems to show that creeds should not 
be too long or intricate, or include doubtful points, or 
be expressed in abstract or philosophical terms. A 
creed should be brief, so as to be often recited and 
easily remembered. It should include only those 
doctrines which are clearly taught in the New Testa- 
ment, and which, therefore, are admitted by all, or 
nearly all, who, through the ages, have professed and 
called themselves Christians in the New Testament 
sense of the word, viz., believers in Christ. Ques- 
tions which, originating with the schoolmen of the 
middle ages, have been disputed for centuries, should 
be excluded from a creed designed for the use and 
edification of the great body of Christian believers. 

Not to exclude such questions is the weak point in 
those creeds which have been the occasion, if not the 
cause, of dividing churches and fostering endless dis- 
putes among Protestant Christians, and introduc- 
ing dissensions which have been carried so far as to 
make it practically impossible, in many places, to sup- 
port a preacher of any denomination of Christians. 

Finally, such a creed as we have in mind should 
be expressed in clear, simple, plain terms, which none 
need misunderstand, one easily comprehended by all 



152 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

old enough, intelligent enough, and instructed enough, 
to be members of any Christian church, remember- 
ing the apostolic injunction, " Him that is weak in 
the faith, receive ye." 

But it may be asked, whether such a simple creed as 
this will prove sufficient protection to the doctrinal 
purity of the Church. Will not heresies arise, causing 
a good deal of trouble ? Doubtless they will, but no 
more than under the opposite system of minute and 
metaphysical creeds. Those creeds produced our 
present divisions, by causing powerful and success- 
ful reactions against them, going to the opposite 
extreme. And this result is one which will always 
follow them. Those Protestant churches which 
require as a condition of membership the simplest of 
all creeds, are less annoyed by heresies than those 
that have insisted on maintaining the longest and 
most subtle articles of faith. 

Finally, it is highly desirable, and should be 
regarded as almost indispensable, that a common 
creed, intended for the use of local congregations, 
should be drawn up either in the express language of 
the Bible, or in terms so nearly allied to those of holy 
Scripture, that their relation to, and agreement with, 
these Scriptures will be obvious to all. And this 
remark holds true of all Christian teaching, including 
the preaching of the Word. Men have grown weary 
of logomachies and all subtle systems founded on 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 1 53 

philosophical theories of man or of God, the divine 
decrees, and eternal foreknowledge. What the 
Church, as well as the world, is waiting for, is a clear, 
simple, consistent statement of the things most cer- 
tainly believed among us, because they are founded 
upon the sure warrant of the Scriptures. This 
would include only those things which are necessary 
to the maintenance and integrity of the Christian 
faith, no less than to the present welfare and future 
salvation of the souls of men. 

OUR BELIEF IN GOD. 

" I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and 
Earth." 

The Apostles' Creed is so called, not because it 
originated with the apostles in its present form, but 
because it is a compendium of apostolic teaching. 
Compare it with the first twenty verses of the fif- 
teenth chapter of ist Corinthians, and you cannot 
fail to perceive how perfect is the agreement between 
these two summaries of the essentials of the gospel. 

The creed contains, a few antiquated phrases which 
need to be explained, and will be, in the course of 
this exposition. 

We begin with the first clause of the creed, " I be- 
lieve in God, the Father Almighty." 

Why " I " rather than " we," seeing this is a com- 
mon creed, a confession of the common faith ? The 



154 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

singular pronoun is used to make it the confession of 
each worshiper, who thus declares his individual be- 
lief. This makes it more precise, personal, and em- 
phatic. Each one makes the declaration for himself, 
and feels the individual assurance consequent upon 
the emphatic declaration. 

" I believe." What is belief ? Strictly speaking, 
it is not knowledge. That is to say, it is not absolute 
knowledge. But it is a firm persuasion of the mind 
and heart, founded on what is deemed conclusive 
evidence. This evidence is not mathematical, but 
moral. It does not amount to a demonstration which 
cannot be denied without impugning the veracity of 
our faculties. Mathematical proof admits of no de- 
grees, moral evidence does. Nevertheless, the mind 
may, and often does, feel perfect assurance of the cer- 
tainty based entirely on moral considerations. This 
is the reasoning of Emanuel Kant, probably the first 
of modern philosophers. According to Kant, what 
we call a moral demonstration, the dictate of the 
practical reason whose province is morals and religion, 
is far more certain than the conclusions of the specu- 
lative reason, merely intellectual processes. 

" I believe in God." It is only in our day that it 
has become necessary to say that by this term we do 
not mean merely, or at all, nature, the cosmos, the 
sum of all things, much less the material universe 
alone, or nature including all sentient beings. The 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 1 5 5 

Christian's God, the God of the Bible and of the creed, 
is the Creator of all things, not the sum total of them. 
He is a person, and has all the attributes of a person. 
The most distinctive of these is the will, and we be- 
lieve that by God's will or power, the worlds were 
made. Hence we declare that He is " the maker of 
heaven and earth," i. e., of all things that exist, vis- 
ible and invisible, " thrones, principalities, and pow- 
ers," And without Him, was not anything made that 
is. He is the first and the last, the beginning and 
the end of all things. He alone hath immortality, 'i. e., 
the ground of His existence in Himself. All others 
derive their existence from Him, and if immortal, owe 
their immortality to His will, which is but another 
term for His power, by which He made all things. 

Hence, also, He is declared to be " the Father," i. e., 
the origo et fons, the origin and source, of all that 
lives, or moves, or has being. When we say that He 
is "Almighty, " we simply mean that He can do all 
that it is possible to do, all that power, as such, can 
effect, in the nature of things. But not even He can 
make two mountains without a valley between them, 
for this is not possible in the nature of things. 

Finally, He is in the creed called "the Father," 
because He is personally distinct from the Son, who 
is the image of the Father and the brightness of His 
glory. That is to say, God, the eternal, invisible, im- 
mortal, " dwelling in the light which no man can 



156 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

approach unto, whom no man hath seen, or can see, " 
is shown forth and made manifest to man in the per- 
son of His Son, who is full of grace and truth. And 
this God is our God, the Father everlasting, infinite 
in power, wisdom, and goodness, a God not far from 
any one of us, if we seek Him aright ; but wholly un- 
like and infinitely above the impersonal god of the 
pantheist, on whose lips the word is misleading, 
meaning onfy the visible universe in its totality. 
Entirely distinct from the works of His hand, is the 
God whom we worship in spirit, and truth, an 
infinite Spirit, endowed with will, wisdom, and 
benevolence, who ordereth all things in heaven and 
earth, who hath appointed a day in which He will 
judge the world in righteousness : to whom we are 
both accountable and shall give account for the deeds 
done in the body. How marvelous and how manifest 
the difference between the pantheistic god, without 
even conciousness, and our God, to whom all things 
are open and known. 

This God is not only the God whom we worship, 
but " our Father " as w ell, and we owe it to the gos 
pel that we can call Him by this dear appellation. 
The God of the old English deists was a God afar off, 
quite indifferent to the wants and worship of human 
beings. Not so with the God revealed in the Script- 
ures and declared by the Apostles' Creed to be the 
primary object of religious faith. With Him there 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 1 57 

are no such degrees of dignity as determine and limit 
human regard. The fall of a sparrow is not beneath 
His notice, much less the weakness and prayers of 
those whom He hath made in His own image. 

THE INCARNATION. 

" I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and 
earth ; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord ; who was con- 
ceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary." 

Jesus is a proper name, meaning a savior, and is 
equivalent to Joshua in Hebrew, of which it is the 
Greek form. The name was given to our Lord 
because He should " save His people from their 
sins." This was His mission on earth. For this 
purpose He was born and for this He came into the 
world, as well as to bear witness of the truth, which 
means the same thing, viz., that men are to be saved 
from their sins through Christ alone. He is the 
Savior of mankind, " mighty to save," "able to save 
to the uttermost all who come to God through Him." 
He is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of 
the world. 

He is also " the Christ " or anointed One, set apart 
by God, consecrated by His Spirit to the office of 
Messiah. " Christ," then, is not a proper name, but 
an official designation of the Messiah, for which it is 
the Greek equivalent. He is also called " Shiloh," 
or the sent of God, bringing peace, u the Desire of all 
nations," the one Mediator between God and man, 



158 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

the man Christ Jesus, or Jesus who is the Christ, of 
whom Moses and the prophets did speak. 

In the Scripture, Jesus is designated as " the only 
begotten Son of God," meaning that He is the Son 
of God in a different and higher sense than any crea- 
ture is. " Begotten' of His Father before all worlds." 
" Light of light, very God of very God, begotten not 
made, being of one substance with the Father." For 
proof of this, see St. John's Gospel, both in the intro- 
duction and in every part of the same. 

"Our Lord." No man, says St. Paul, " can call 
Jesus Lord but by the Holy Ghost." A weighty say- 
ing, and of solemn import, the force of which will be 
perceived by referring to Peter's reply to the inquiry 
of Jesus, " And who say ye that I am ?" And Simon 
Peter replied, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the 
living God." Then the Savior said, " Blessed art 
thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not 
revealed this unto thee, but My Father who is in 
heaven. And on this rock I will build My Church 
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." 

An ancient heresy maintained that all that was 
human of Christ was His body, to which the divine 
nature was united. This theory has been revived in 
our day, and defended by interpreting literally the 
text, " The Word was made flesh," stress being laid 
on the word " flesh" as if it excluded the hypothesis 
of a human soul. But the advocates of this view 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 1 59 

should have known the contrary to be true, that the 
term includes the soul as well as the body. The 
point is not immaterial, but vital, since upon a cor- 
rect view of it depend the most important relations 
of our Lord to us and to the Father. If He had no 
soul, then He was not a real man, for the body apart 
from the soul does not and cannot make a man. All 
that is most precious in the New Testament account 
of Christ requires us to believe that His divinity 
assumed our nature in all that is proper to it, includ- 
ing soul and body. When He was an hungered, weary, 
or asleep, the body was affected ; but when He 
prayed to God, reasoned with man, chose and loved 
His friends, a human soul and mind appeared. 

The second point is that, without this human soul, 
Christ could not have been tried in all things as we, 
and would not therefore have been made like unto 
His brethren, nor have been perfect as the Captain 
of our salvation. Unless He had been the man 
Christ Jesus, He could not have grown in wisdom 
and stature, nor shared with us the joys and sorrows 
of life, in feasts and fasts, in praise and prayer, in 
word and deed. 

A third point is, that without this human soul, He 
could not have been touched with a feeling for our 
infirmities, and so could not have become our faithful 
High Priest. As the Roman patron appeared for his 
client, so Christ hath appeared in heaven for us. He 



l60 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

is our great Advocate there, by whose all-sufficient 
merit we are raised to heavenly places. 

"The Lord is come ! The world's great stage 
Begins a brighter, better age ; 
The old gives place unto the new ; 
The false retires before the true ; 
A progress that shall never tire, 
A central heat of sacred fire, 
A hope that soars beyond the tomb, 
Reveal that Christ has truly come. 

"The Lord is come ! In ev'ry heart 
Where truth and mercy claim a part ; 
In every land where right is might, 
And deeds of darkness shun the light ; 
In every church where faith and love 
Lift earthward thoughts to things above ; 
In every holy, happy home, 
We bless Thee, Lord, that Thou hast come." 

Christ's passion, death, and descent into 

HADES. 

" I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and 
earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord; who was con- 
ceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary ; suffered under 
Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into 
hell." 

Pontius Pilate was a typical politician. His rul- 
ing passion was love of office and official distinction 
and emoluments. To attain his ends he was unscru- 
pulous in the use of means. Not that he was a 
cruel, or very corrupt man. He was quite up to the 
average of politicians as they were then, or are now. 
He was unpopular among the Jews, who were only 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. l6l 

too ready to avail themselves of t any technical omis- 
sion of duty to accuse him of aiding and abetting 
treason to the emperor and the imperial government. 
Of this he was well aware, and t so dared not defy 
their malice to do its worst. If he, or Jesus, must be 
sacrificed to that malice, it had better be Jesus than 
he, though Pilate plainly saw and confessed that 
there was " no fault found in Him." The leaders of 
the Jews had long pursued Jesus with unrelenting 
hostility. They were determined to destroy His 
influence and put Him down. To effect this they 
used all the weapons known to bigots, persecutors 
and inquisitors of all ages and countries. They 
maligned His motives and misrepresented His doc- 
trines. They accused Him of offences the most for- 
eign to His life and character. And they did not 
rest till they had accomplished their purpose. When 
Jesus stood before Pilate they clamored for His blood, 
saying, " If He were not a malefactor, we would not 
have delivered Him unto thee." To Pilate's proposal 
of releasing Him, after they had humiliated, insulted, 
and cruelly tormented Him, they raised the cry, 
" Crucify Him, crucify Him." And so Jesus was 
scourged and delivered up to death. Compelled to 
bear His cross, He fainted by the way and was 
relieved of the burden by an obscure disciple, whom 
the soldiers obliged to carry the cross. 

Arrived at the place of crucifixion, the leaders of 
8* 



l62 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

the Jews and the mob taunted Jesus as one who 
saved others, but could not save Himself. And in 
this they spake truly. For this purpose was He born, 
and to this end came He into the world. "Though 
He was in the form of God, and thought it not rob- 
bery to be equal with God, He made Himself of no 
reputation and took upon Him the form of a servant 
and was made in the likeness of man. And being 
found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and 
became obedient unto death, even the death of the 
cross." 

He suffered not for any sins of His own, nor 
on His own account in any way, but He tasted death 
for every man ; His soul was made a sacrifice for sin. 
" What the law could not do, in that it was weak 
through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the 
likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in 
the flesh." His death was the propitiation for the 
sins of the whole world. " In that He died He 
died unto sin once, but in that He liveth He liveth 
unto God." Surely He shed His blood " for many 
for the remission of their sins." 

Such are the positive, plain declarations of Scrip- 
ture, both of our Lord and of His apostles, and happy 
is he who can receive them as faithful sayings, worthy 
of our acceptance, assuring us that " Christ Jesus 
came into the world to save sinners," and is "able to 
save to the uttermost all who come to God by Him." 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 163 

Men may speculate, as men for ages have speculated, 
upon the theory of the atonement, but the fact will 
always remain that " for us men and our salvation " 
Christ came into the world, was crucified, dead and 
buried. It was certainly not a commercial transac- 
tion, but a governmental, and still more a moral 
motive and movement, which began with the incar- 
nation and ended with the death on the cross, or 
rather with His resurrection, which declared or 
demonstrated Jesus to be the Son of God, and 
showed that His death was "a full, perfect, and suffi- 
cient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins 
of the whole world." 

This was the undoubted faith of the early and uni- 
versal Church of Christ, and this the explicit declara- 
tion of the primitive liturgies, instituted expressly for 
the celebration of the Lord's Supper, in which the 
faithful were to show forth the Lord's death till He 
came the second time for our salvation. Let us not 
then seek to be wise above what is written for our 
instruction by the apostles of Christ, who knew the 
mind of Jesus. 

The scheme of redemption contemplates as its 
chief end to save men from their merited punish- 
ment by substituting the death of Christ as a propi- 
tiatory sacrifice, a sacrifice symbolized by the ancient 
propitiatory sacrifices of the Jews. In the divine 
government, the death of Christ is made to answer 



164 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

the ends of the law, that would have been answered 
by suffering the penalty in their own persons, in 
respect to all those who by repentance and faith 
unite themselves to Christ, and thus procure for 
themselves the benefits of His vicarious sufferings. 

The descent into hell, or Hades, which in the 
creed means the same thing, viz., the place of 
departed spirits, was a later addition to the creed to 
refute the heresy which taught that Christ's death 
was apparent rather than real. This clause teaches 
that His human soul was separated from His body 
and entered Hades, the abode of all human souls 
after death, and before the resurrection. 

Christ's resurrection. 

"I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and 
earth ; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord ; who was conceived 
by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary ; suffered under Pontius 
Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried; He descended into hell; 
the third day He arose from the dead." 

Life abounds in contrasts. But we shall look in 
vain for any more striking than those presented in 
the conduct of the apostles at the two great festivals 
of the Jews, the Passover and the Pentecost, in the 
year of Christ's crucifixion. When their Master was 
betrayed at the Passover, the apostles were easily 
intimidated, became frightened, lost their presence 
of mind, and fled from the face of their enemies. 
They had trusted in Jesus as the future deliverer of 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. ' l6$ 

Israel from the yoke of a foreign bondage, and be- 
lieved that He would soon restore the kingdom to 
Israel. But His apprehension, trial and death had 
put an end to all their hopes, which were buried with 
Him. Apparently all was at an end. The prophet 
of Galilee, the prince of peace, He who declared 
Himself the Son of the Highest, was crucified, dead, 
and buried ; while His followers, frightened at the 
thought of being identified with Him, were fleeing 
from their familiar haunts, and seeking refuge in the 
obscure abodes of friends and disciples. How marked 
and marvelous the change in their anticipations and 
actions, but the change was far less marked and 
marvelous than that which transpired fifty days after- 
ward at the feast of Pentecost. 

At the Passover, Peter was afraid to face a maid 
servant ; at the Pentecost he dared to confront the 
chief priests and Pharisees, as well as the foreign 
Jews who had come up to Jerusalem to celebrate the 
feast. Calm, collected, courting danger, the apostles 
now feared nothing, and were ready to hazard their 
lives for the Lord Jesus. Brought before the rulers 
of the Jews, they were unmoved by their threats, and 
replied, " Whether we ought to hearken unto you 
more than unto God, judge ye, but we cannot but 
speak the things we have seen and heard." Nor was 
this a momentary exhibition of courage, a transient 
impulse, but the beginning of what proved to be a 



1 66 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

permanent and radical change in their character and 
conduct. From this time, they counted not their 
lives dear unto them, " so that they might testify of the 
grace of God and the gospel of the Lord Jesus which 
was committed to them." In point of fact, they con- 
tinued in this course till it ended in death, undeterred 
and undismayed by every form of trial and suffering, 
always bearing about in their bodies the marks of 
stripes and imprisonment, the signs and seals of their 
ministry. 

If now we ask the cause of this great change, we 
find it not only coincident with the resurrection of 
Christ, but indissolubly connected and bound up with 
it as the chief cause, the only cause adequate to ex- 
plain it. They themselves are witnesses of the fact. 
They declare not only the fact of the resurrction, but 
the power of it, as sufficient to account for all that 
followed. Of the fact they were eyewitnesses, and 
went everywhere preaching it as the stupendous 
marvel and miracle of time, on the truth of which the 
entire gospel depended. God had declared Jesus to 
be His Son, by raising Him from the dead, of whom 
He was the first fruits. For if Jesus died and rose 
again, then all who sleep in Jesus will God bring with 
Him when He shall appear the second time for our 
salvation. But if Christ is not risen, then is our faith 
vain, and all who have fallen asleep in Christ have 
perished, and we are yet in our sins. The entire 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 167 

scheme of the gospel presupposes the resurrection of 
Christ, and stands or falls with it. All His teachings, 
all His promises, are based on this as their corner 
stone. Take the hope of immortality, for instance. 
Men had longed to believe it true, and philosophers 
had argued for it with much plausibility. But it was a 
question environed with difficulties and obscured by 
doubts. It was the question of the ages, ever recur- 
ring, never settled. To many, the arguments for, and 
the arguments against, seemed nearly equally bal- 
anced. Doubtless the arguments for it were really 
the stronger, and were urged by philosophers of the 
greatest spiritual insight. But th9 majority of man- 
kind are not reasoners, and are not spiritual, but car- 
nal, and so controlled by the influences of sense. The 
evidence of the senses is indeed the chief obstacle to 
our faith in immortality. We see what death is; we 
are witnesses of the dissolution and decay of the body. 
All the senses are directly and powerfully appealed 
to, and through them the imagination is kindled 
earthward, rather than heavenward. And doubtless 
it was in view of this fact, that our heavenly Father 
vouchsafed to give us corresponding proofs, the evi- 
dence that we need, and which alone could suffice to 
dissipate our natural fears induced by sensible demon- 
strations. 

What mankind needed, then, was not new evidence 
of an intellectual kind, arguments addressed to the 



l68 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

reason/but sensible proofs to counteract the teaching 
of the senses which seemed to discourage all hope of 
a life beyond the grave. And precisely this we have 
in Christ's resurrection, which was a fact addressed 
to the senses of the the disciples, about which they 
could not be deceived. As witnesses of that fact 
they went into all the world, preaching the gospel to 
every creature, The gospel cry was, " Awake, awake 
from the dead, and Christ shall give thee life." M Let 
us not sorrow therefore as others, which have no 
hope, but believe that all those who sleep in Jesus 
will God bring with Him." 

Now this preaching of the apostles was certainly 
true, unless they were false witnesses for Christ. 
They themselves join this issue, that, unless Christ 
rose from the dead, they were convicted of false wit- 
ness. That any twelve men should conspire to tell 
such a falsehood at the risk of ease, health, and life 
itself, is contrary to all our experience of mankind. 
Add the fact, that the apostles were evidently and 
confessedly among the highest in morality, in develop- 
ment of conscience, and we have every assurance of 
their integrity and the reality of the event to which 
they declared themselves eye-witnesses. 

To say that though they were not and could not be 
false witnesses, yet that they may have been enthu- 
siasts, and so self-deceived, is a theory equally unten- 
able. Enthusiasm is developed by certain well-known 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 1 69 

laws, and under certain conditions which are not 
found in the lives and character and conduct of the 
apostles. We do not say that the subject is without 
difficulties, but we do say, that the difficulties of the 
believer and of believing are not half so great as those 
of the unbeliever. 

And as the story must be true or false, it is the 
part of reasonable beings to accept and hold fast the 
view that is attended with fewest objections, and is 
sustained by an overwhelming mass of positive evi- 
dence from the lips and lives of unimpeachable wit- 
nesses. 

Christ's ascension and second advent. 

"I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and 
earth ; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord ; who was con- 
ceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary; suffered under 
Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried ; He descended into 
hell ; the third day He rose from the dead ; He ascended into heaven 
and sitteth on the right hand of God, the Father Almighty ; from 
thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead." 

The ascension of Christ, as Neander has observed, 
corresponds with His coming into the world. Any 
other end of an earthly life begun as was our Lord's 
would not have been consistent, or given a sense of 
fitness and completeness. It, is impossible to con- 
struct the gospels, or construe such a life, on purely 
natural principles. We must survey it throughout 
from a higher point of view. 

The Son of God could not be kept in the grave 



I70 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

nor be holden by any of the bands of death. Essen- 
ially immortal, He must rise from the dead and 
ascend into heaven, where He reigns at the right 
hand of the Father. This is the place of honor 
where all the angels of God worship Him. The 
scepter of His kingdom is a scepter of righteousness, 
and He must reign on high till He hath put all ene- 
mies under His feet. There He ever lives to make 
intercession for all who come to God by Him. For 
there is one God, and one Mediator between God and 
man, the man Christ Jesus. 

If human nature was sanctified by the incarnation 
of the divine Word, much more is it glorified by the 
ascension of Christ, who is at once the Son of God 
and the Son of man. These are His characteristic 
designations, and it is the mystical union of these 
two natures in one person which fits our Lord to be 
the Savior of the world. And as by His death 
Christ made " a full, perfect, and all sufficient sacrifice" 
for the sins of men, both original and actual, so His 
mediatorial work is shared by no other. It is His 
alone. There is one and but one mediator, and we 
need no other. The merits of His sacrifice were suf- 
ficient to atone for our sins without any other offer- 
ing, and His intercession is equally effectual and can 
but prevail. We may venerate all the saints, but 
may not exalt any of them to the place of honor 
which is filled by the adorable Redeemer of mankind. 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. I/I 

All men may lawfully honor the Son as they honor 
the Father, but no man may honor any earthly saint 
as he is in duty bound to honor the Savior. He 
will not share His throne with mortals and sinners, 
who all need pardon in His name to obtain the peace 
of God, and to inherit the rest that remaineth for His 
children. On the other hand, He has promised that 
whosoever cometh to Him He will in no wise cast 
out, and He is able to save to the uttermost all who 
come unto God by Him. 

And like as we do believe our Lord to have died 
unto sin and risen unto righteousness, so He died 
unto sin once for all. Death hath no more dominion 
over Him. He hath the key of death and of Hades. 
As He ascended into heaven, so in like manner shall 
He come the second time unto our salvation, and to 
be adored by all them that believe. In that day, all 
that are in their graves shall come forth to judgment. 
The quick, that is the living, and the dead shall then 
appear before Him whom God hath appointed to 
judge the world in righteousness. The thought of 
this judgment and the fear of this great day are not 
so much in our minds as they were in the minds of 
our fathers. Nevertheless, it is a thought too promi- 
nent in every part of the Bible, too pervasive of Holy 
Scripture, to make its subversion or elimination pos- 
sible. 

Doubtless the terrors of the law and the fiery 



172 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

ordeals of the great day, were once disproportionately 
dwelt on. In some cases the law was more preached 
than the gospel, which in a sense supersedes it. But 
we are not, therefore, at liberty to exclude the idea 
as improbable or inadmissible. On the contrary, we 
are bound to entertain and cherish it as one of the 
surest as well as most solemn verities of the Chris- 
tian faith. It is enough that we are to be judged by 
One who has been tempted in all points as we are, 
One who is now our great High Priest and Interces- 
sor. His judgment will be in righteousness and 
mercy, and in perfect accordance with our own moral 
instincts and convictions. The adoring hymn of the 
heavenly hosts will ever be "Righteous and true are 
Thy ways, O Lord God Almighty." Let us riot fear, 
therefore, that in that day our moral sensibilities will 
be shocked. So far from this they will be confirmed, 
strengthened, stablished and settled forever and ever. 
Such is the plain teaching of holy Scripture touch- 
ing the ascension of our Lord into heaven, and such 
the office He now fills at the right hand of the Maj- 
esty on high. Now, as of old, there are those who 
deride the story of the ascension and scoff at the 
promise of His appearance the second time upon the 
earth. To all these, Christ is now, as in the apos- 
tles' day, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence, 
even to them that stumble at the Word. But the 
promise of God standeth sure, having this seal, The 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 1 73 

Lord knoweth them that are His. And Christ adds, 
that all they who are of the truth hear My voice and 
follow Me, and I will give unto them eternal life. 

THE HOLY GHOST. 

" I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth ; 
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by 
the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary ; suffered under Pontius 
Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried ; He descended into hell ; 
the third day He arose from the dead ; He ascended into heaven, and 
sitteth on the right hand of God, the Father Almighty ; from thence 
He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. 

" I believe in the Holy Ghost." 

We believe in the Holy Ghost, first as the Lord, 
and Giver of life. It was He who moved upon the 
face of the waters, educed order from chaos and light 
from darkness. Creation was quickened by the Spirit, 
and all life proceeds from Him. This is true of the 
lower forms of life, and of the higher, if possible, 
much more true. 

All the higher aspirations of the human soul, in 
particular, He has kindled from the beginning. 
Hence David's prayer, "Take not thy Holy Spirit 
from me." This is one of many Old Testament 
texts which show that religion among the Jews was 
not so formal as many suppose. They felt their de- 
pendence on the Divine Spirit as well as we. 

It was also their belief, as ours, that " He spake by 
the prophets." We need not here enter into the nice 



174 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

distinctions of theologians as to the precise sense of 
this declaration. Suffice it to say, that He spake as 
never man did or could speak without Him. He 
spake to, and through, the prophets, as only God can 
speak to the human soul. And these things thus 
written of old, were written for our learning on whom 
the ends of the world are come. And we believe the 
prophets here include the apostles as well, for they, 
too, claim to speak by the Spirit. Their writings, 
also, attest this claim, and there are no others since 
their day that can compare with them as vehicles of 
Divine Truth. 

The Holy Ghost is " the Comforter" promised by 
Christ and of whom He said, " If I go away I will 
send Him unto you." It was His mission to take of 
the things of Christ and show them unto us — and to 
convince the world of sin, of righteousness and of 
judgment to come. And all this He has done from 
the beginning of the gospel ; Christians are said to be 
temples of theHoly Ghost, for He dwells in them. 
Our first conviction of sin, our sense of guilt, our con- 
scious need of a Divine Savior, our apprehension of 
this Savior, our faith in Christ as our Redeemer, our 
love to Him, the service we render Him, our confor- 
mity to His image in any degree, our growth in grace 
and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus 
Christ, — all this we ascribe to the Holy Ghost, the 
influence of the Spirit in our hearts. 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 175 

Not that the Spirit is merely an influence emanat- 
ing from God the Father. " He proceedeth from the 
Father and the Son," from the Father as the foun- 
tain or source of Divinity, and from the Son by mis- 
sion. But the original and proper procession of the 
Holy Ghost was from the Father, even as the Son 
was " the only begotten." These are among the deep 
things of God before which we do well to veil our 
faces and cry, "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Al- 
mighty." 

The Holy Ghost is also "with the Father and Son 
together to be worshiped and glorified. " As all men 
are to honor the Son even as they honor the Father, 
so they are to worship and glorify the Spirit. This 
is the Christian doctrine of God, not so formally 
stated as in the creeds, yet everywhere present in the 
New Testament, equally in the four Gospels and in 
the Epistles. The fullest and most sublime exposition 
of it is in the fourth Gospel, the most doctrinal of the 
four. What a legacy is that gospel to the Christian 
church ! Thus far it has withstood the most vehement 
and persistent assaults upon it, and we doubt not it 
will ever stand firm as a pillar of light to guide the 
true Isarel through the wilderness of this world to 
the promised land. 

And the Christian doctrine of the Holy Ghost is 
still more precious, if possible. To the Spirit of God 
we are indebted for the Holy Scriptures. The con- 



I76 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

secration of Christ to His work and His offering of 
Himself as a perfect and sufficient sacrifice for sin 
on the cross, was " through the Eternal Spirit." The 
preaching of the apostles was in demonstration of the. 
Spirit, and all their real converts became such through 
the power of the Holy Ghost. 

Nor is this a doctrine to darken counsel without 
wisdom, but is full of light and comfort to every true 
Christian. No man can " call Jesus Lord but by the 
Holy Ghost." This is as true now as at the first, and 
will forever remain true. Let not this truth, then, 
be obscured, explained away, or denied. It is an 
essential part of the gospel. 

" If a man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none 
of His." All our works, all our pure aspirations, all 
our progress in the Christian life, we owe to His 
assistance. 

" ' Tis He that works to will, 

' Tis He that works to do ; 
His is the power by which we act 

His be the glory too ! " 

How beautifully is this truth of the gospel and our 
indebtedness to the Holy Spirit set forth in the hymn 
ever dear to the Christian heart. 

" Our blest Redeemer, ere he breathed 
His tender last farewell, 
A Guide, a Comforter, bequeathed 
With us to dwell. 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 1 77 

" He came in semblance of a dove 
With sheltering wings outspread, 
The holy balm of peace and love 
On earth to shed. 

" He came' sweet influence to impart, 
A gracious, willing guest, 
While he can find one humble heart 
Wherein to rest. 

" And His that gentle voice we hear, 
Soft as the breath of even, 
That checks each thought, that calms each fear, 
And speaks of heaven. 

" And every virtue we possess, 
And every victory won, 
And every thought of holiness, 
Are His alone. 

" Spirit of purity and grace, 
Our weakness, pitying, see, 
O make our hearts Thy dwelling-place 
And meet for Thee." 



THE CHURCH. 

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth 
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord ; who was conceived by 
the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius 
Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried ; He descended into hell ; the 
third day He arose again from the dead ; He ascended into heaven, 
and sitteth on the right hand of God, the Father Almighty ; from 
thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in 
the Holy Ghost; the holy Catholic (i.e., universal) church, the com- 
munion of saints. 

Our Savior not only preached the glad tidings 
which we call the gospel, but established the Church, 
which is His " mystical body," " the blessed company 

9 



178 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

of all faithful people." This He did not arbitrarily, 
but in accordance with the constitutional and univer- 
sal tendency of the human mind to convert abstrac- 
tions into concrete, visible realities and forms. 

Men, for example, are not satisfied with political 
theories, but invariably proceed to organize political 
principles into state constitutions and governments. 
So in religion we need not only truth, teaching, doc- 
trines, and creeds, but a visible organization, in which 
the truth can be applied and made effective for the 
conversion of the world as well as the edification of 
Christians. The Church is an institution essential to 
our highest spiritual welfare, our growth in grace 
and the efficacy of all Christian teaching. It is a 
necessity of man's religious nature. Jesus knew 
what was in man, knew therefore, his needs in this 
regard, and established His Church, declaring that it 
should successfully withstand all assaults, so that not 
even the gates of hell should prevail against it. The 
rock on which it is founded is the divinity of Christ, 
and it is a clear recognition of this divinity which 
brings us into right relations with the Head of the 
Church. By this faith we become "members of 
Christ," and He is formed in our hearts the hope of 
glory. 

But our visible connection with the Church, or 
union with the visible Church rather, is through bap- 
tism, the Lord's own ordinance to establish this rela- 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 1 79 

tion. This is the reason why all who profess and call 
themselves Christians should be baptized persons, 
because Christ has commanded it. " Go ye, therefore, 
and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of 
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." 
This is the apostolic commission and will hold good 
to the end of the world. 

But some one will ask for a definition of the church 
what are its essential " notes," or elements. We 
answer this question in words so moderate, reasonable, 
and wise that we trust they will find general accept- 
ance. " The visible Church of Christ is a congrega- 
tion of faithful men, in the which the pure Word of 
God is preached, and the sacraments be duly minis- 
tered according to Christ's ordinance, in all those 
things that of necessity are requisite to the same." 

This is a definition which in substance was adopted 
by the reformed Churches both of England and of the 
Continent, and remains to this day the best in our 
own or any other language. It is brief, yet clear, 
consistent, and eminently scriptural. A visible 
Church is a congregation and assembly, a visible body 
having parts which cohere. Its members are " faith- 
ful," i. e. believing men, believing in Christ as their 
Savior and the only mediator with God. In such a 
congregation " the pure Word of God is preached," 
and not the wisdom of men, human philosophy. The 
gospel alone is held to be the power of God unto sal- 



l80 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

vation, the great theme of the Bible and of Christian- 
ity. Also "the sacraments be duly ministered 
according to Christ's ordinance, in all those things 
that of necessity are requisite to the same." They 
are both duly honored and celebrated as Christ's own 
symbols and signs and channels of grace, without 
which (divine grace) religion is a barren abstraction. 
It is true that there are differences of opinion among 
Christians as to " those things that of necessity are 
requisite to the same." But all agree as to the ele- 
ments or matter of the same, water in baptism applied 
in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit, and also 
of the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper as visible 
signs of His body and blood. Baptism is the sign of 
our profession, the sacrament by which we consecrate 
ourselves to the perpetual service of the Savior, and 
pledge ourselves to be His soldiers and servants unto 
the end of our lives. The Lord's Supper is a com- 
munion with Christ of the most exalted kind. 
Hence the apostle, '* The cup of blessing which we 
bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ ? 
The bread which we break, is it not the communion 
of the body of Christ ? " This is indeed the commun- 
ion of saints, the communion which saints have with 
their Savior, the highest they can know on earth, 
and pledge of a still more perfect union with Him in 
heaven. It is also and equally the symbol of their 
union and communion with each other as the mys- 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. l8l 

tical body of Christ, the blessed company of all faith- 
ful people. 

" On earth we want the sight 
Of our Redeemer's face, 
Yet, Lord, our inmost souls delight 
To dwell upon Thy grace. 

"And when we taste Thy love 
Our joys diviner grow, 
Unspeakable like those above, 
And heaven begins below." 

Such, then, are the essential notes of the Chris- 
tian Church. All Christian congregations having 
these notes are true churches, apd the sum of them 
constitute "the church Catholic," i. e., the church 
universal on earth. But there are many other 
though lesser notes which we could enumerate, and 
would be glad to dilate on, if time and space permit- 
ted. Thus the Church is undoubtedly "the witness 
and keeper of Holy Writ." For to the Christian 
Church, as of old to the ancient Jewish church, are 
now committed " the oracles of God." It is to the 
Church we are indebted for the preservation and per- 
petuity of the sacred oracles, as well as their transla- 
tion and dissemination into the languages and among 
the peoples of the earth. The Churchhas been care- 
ful to guard the Scriptures from corruption, addition, 
or subtraction. The Church hath also authority in 
matters of faith, but cannot ordain^anything that is 
contrary to God's Word written, or enforce anything 



1 82 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

as necessary to salvation beside the same. Nor can 
the Church so expound one place of Scripture, that it 
is repugnant to another. 

Thus, if the Church receives and requires her 
children to receive the Apostles' Creed, it is " because 
it may be proved by most certain warrant, of Scrip- 
ture." The cardinal principle from which the Church 
itself cannot depart in the least degree is that " Holy 
Scripture containeth all things necessary to salva- 
tion," so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may 
be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, 
that it should be believed as an article of the faith, 
or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation." 

Finally, as to the preaching of the Word and min- 
istering of the sacraments, it is a sound doctrine 
worthy to be received by all, that " It is not lawful 
for any man to take upon him the office of public 
preaching, or ministering the sacraments in the con- 
gregation, before he be lawfully called, and sent to 
execute the same. And those we ought to judge 
lawfully called and sent which be chosen and called 
to this work by men who have public authority given 
unto them in the congregation, to call and send min- 
isters into the Lord's vineyard." 

Such are a few of the ancient landmarks which no 
man should seek to remove or be allowed to remove. 
They were set up by the fathers not only t)f the 
primitive Church, but renewed by the second and not 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 1 83 

inferior fathers of the Church, whom we honor by the 
name of " Reformers/' and whose work we still call 
"the great Reformation." Let us hold fast to the 
form of sound words which they, and the apostles 
before them, gave to the Church for all time. Then 
will glorious things be spoken of " the city of our 
God," the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most 
High. God is in the midst of her, therefore she shall 
not be moved. We will not fear for her stability and 
sure foundations, though the winds rage, the waters 
roar, and the mountains be carried into the midst of 
the sea. 

" Mother of cities ! o'er thy head 
Bright peace, with healing wings outspread, 

Forevermore shall dwell ; 
Let me, blest seat ! my name behold 
Among thy citizens enrolled, 

And bid the world farewell." 



THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS. 

Sin is a fact of human consciousness nearly univer- 
sal. The number of persons who profess to have no 
sense of sin is very small. Doubtless the idea is often 
obscure, and the sense of it very superficial. But its 
reality is attested by all history, witnessed by the 
altars erected and the propitiatory sacrifices offered 
in all ages and countries. As Tertullian averred in 
the second century, even so now, "You will find 



1 84 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

peoples so low in the scale of humanity as to be with- 
out art, science, or literature, but a people without 
altars and a worship you will nowhere find." And 
this worship invariably assumes the form of propitia- 
tory offering and sacrifices for sin, the blood of bulls 
and of goats, which, however, can never take away 
sin, i. e. } the sense of moral unworthiness, of guilt. 

Hence, apart from the gospel, there is no peace for 
the soul. The inventions of men have everywhere 
and always failed to compass it. Flagellations, pil- 
grimages, costly offerings, abstinence, voluntary pov- 
erty, a life, of seclusion, retirement to the caves of the 
earth and dens of wild beasts, — all these and many 
other devices have failed. And failing to obtain peace 
by routine observances, many have sought to silence 
conscience by " making light of" the common con- 
sciousness of sin and guilt by repudiating it and 
declaring that sin is a chimera, a creation of the sickly 
imagination, the invention of priests. But " Levia- 
than is not so tamed." The ghosts of sin, so lightly 
put out of the way, will not down, but rise before men 
when least expected. Hence the success of all faith- 
ful preaching and the phenomena of revivals, or 
what answers to them, in all ages. Prophets, apos- 
tles, martyrs (witnesses of the truth), missionaries, 
are sure to obtain a hearing and a " confession of sin." 
Of the fact of human sinfulness, then, there can be 
no doubt. Sin is a transgression of the moral law, and 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 1 85 

all have sinned. Mankind are far gone from their 
original righteousness. 

This being admitted, the question of interest to all 
is that propounded by the ancients, " Can man be 
just (justified) with God? Is there forgiveness with 
Him ? " Prophets and psalmists were commissioned 
to declare that "there is forgiveness with God." 
How beautiful on the mountains the feet of these in- 
spired messengers proclaiming the good news, " Let 
the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man 
his thoughts ; and let him return unto the Lord, and 
He will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He 
will abundantly pardon." Still clearer was the pro- 
clamation of the glad tidings by our blessed Savior, 

" When listening thousands gathered round 
And joy and gladness filled the place." 

"The Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins," 
in confirmation of which power, He saith to the sick 
of the palsy, "Take up thy bed and walk." And 
again, " This is My blood of the new testament which 
is shed for many for the remission of sins." And 
the burden of the apostles' testimony was, " Be it 
known unto you, men and brethren, that through 
this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins."' 
And He is the only Mediator. We need no human 
saint to intercede for us, for Jesus is able to save all 
who come to God by Him. And whosoever cometh 
He will in no wise cast out. The gospel, then, is the 



1 86 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

power of God unto our salvation. The peace which 
it brings is the peace of God which passeth all human 
understanding, and keeps the heart and mind both 
in the knowledge and love of God. The blessing of 
God always attends the faithful proclamation of this 
glorious gospel, and will to the end of the world. 

There are those who affect to look upon Christian- 
ity as an effete system, old, decrepit, and ready to 
vanish away. The truth is, that the gospel has just 
begun to take possession of its proper field, which is 
" the world." All other positive systems have failed 
to fit men even for this life. As for unbelief in all its 
forms, it nowhere engages earnestly in efforts to 
improve mankind. It does not even try to do it. 
It has no heart for the work, no sufficient motive. 
It limits itself to carping criticism in great, " swelling 
words." 

The work of reforming the world is committed to 
Christians, to the Church of Christ. Much has been 
already done, and more will be accomplished in this 
and the next age, till the gospel is preached unto all 
nations. Many are the signs of the signal triumphs 
of the gospel in all lands, but none are more assuring 
than this of which we speak, the need of forgiveness 
felt by all, or nearly all, all who do not deceive them- 
selves by saying that they " have ho sin." Such deny 
the divine testimony that " all have sinned and come 
short of the glory of God." But as many as confess 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 1 87 

and forsake their sins, shall find pardon and peace 
through "the precious blood of Christ, which cleans- 
eth from all sin." 



THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE EVERLASTING. 

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth ; 
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by 
the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius 
Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried ; He descended into hell ; the 
third day He rose again from the dead ; He ascended into heaven, 
and sitteth on the right hand of God, the Father Almighty ; from 
thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. 

I believe in the Holy Ghost ; the holy Catcholic Church ; the com- 
munion of saints ; the forgiveness of sins ; the resurrection of the 
body ; and the life everlasting. Amen. 

It is undoubtedly true that "life and immortality 
are brought to light in the gospel/' and only there. 
The ancients often and anxiously discussed the 
question, but could arrive at no certain conclusion. 
As Cicero says, the philosophers did not so much 
prove as hope for it. With them, it was but a hope, 
hampered by many fears and doubts. Nor is modern 
thought more successful. When left to themselves, 
to their unaided reason, men differ and doubt as of 
old. Death is a fact which none can deny or dispute. 
Its effects, too, are visible and tangible. The imag- 
ination is appalled by the signs of dissolution, and 
death would have an easy victory but for the voice of 
revelation. "If a man die, shall he live again?" 



1 88 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

This is the question, and it is of infinite moment to 
every man. The pantheist, the materialist and the 
atheist, all agree that personal consciousness cannot 
survive the dissolution of the body. According to 
them, the body with its functions is the man, and the 
exercise of the bodily functions is the life. With the 
cessation of these life ceases, and the man exists not 
after the breath leaves his body. 

But the gospel teaches that after the dissolution 
of the body — the house we live in here — we shall 
have a building of God, a house not made with hands, 
eternal in the heavens, so that when we are absent 
from the body we shall be present with the Lord. 
Which belief comports most with the dignity of our 
nature, and answers best to our highest aspirations, 
is obvious enough. Hope springs immortal in the 
human breast, and we are prone to believe that even 
in death "we shall not all die." Whence this hope, 
unless from on high and implanted in the soul of man 
by his maker. Unless we are to survive the death of 
the body, our earthly life seems short, unsatisfactory, 
and incomplete. The strongest argument is the 
moral necessity of adjusting the inequalities of the 
present life, and the apparent necessity of righting 
the wrongs which are allowed to prevail for a season 
here. " For all these things God will bring thee into 
judgment" is the constant warning of holy writ to 
the wicked doer. " The wicked shall be driven away 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 1 89 

in his wickedness, but the righteous hath hope in his 
death." 

To confirm this hope, making it an anchor to the 
soul, Christ died and rose again. And he that hath 
this hope purifieth himself even as Christ is pure. 
So the apostles preached, and so all Christians believe, 
that Christ rose from the dead according to the 
Scriptures. And if Christ rose from the dead, it fol- 
lows that " all who sleep in Christ God will bring 
with Him," when He shall appear the second time 
for our salvation, when the dead will be raised and all 
who are alive will be changed at His coming. We 
shall see Him as He is, and be made like unto Him, 
and " so shall we be ever with the Lord." This is 
the teaching of the New Testament. It is plain, con- 
sistent, and conclusive. 

The life to come is not only endless, but endlessly- 
progressive. The time will never arrive when we 
shall cease to live, or cease to grow. Our thoughts, 
our knowledge, our affections will continue and 
expand forever. Seeing that this is our faith, what 
holy persons ought we to be in our life and convers- 
ation. 

But what of the resurrection ? What are we to 
believe about that ? All that the Scriptures teach. 
The fifteenth chapter of the first Epistle to the Cor- 
inthians contains all that we can know about it, or 
need believe. There will be a resurrection of the 



190 EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

dead, both of the just and of the unjust. Christ is 
the first fruits from the dead, afterward they that are 
Christ's at His coming. The body is sown in cor- 
ruption at death, and shall be raised in incorruption. 
It is sown in weakness, and shall be raised in power. 
It is sown a natural body and shall be raised a spirit- 
ual body. What a natural body is we know. What 
a spiritual body is we do not yet know. All that it 
is necessary to believe about it is, that it will be as 
well adapted to the future state as the natural body 
is to the present state. It will also be our body. 
We shall feel it to be so, and shall identify it as such. 
Whatever is essential to the identity of the body is 
the principal thing. What this is, no man on earth 
knows. It certainly is not the precise particles of 
matter which compose the body at any given time. 
For these may change, and do change repeatedly, 
without the body losing its identity ; a fact which 
scatters to the winds the common objection to the 
doctrine of the resurrection. Doubtless God could 
preserve the material body intact even in the grave* 
but it is not necessary that He should do so. 

Again, it is asked where is the soul after death and 
before the resurrection ? The souls of the faithful 
freed from the burden of the flesh " are with God in 
joy and felicity," but they will not have their perfect 
consummation of bliss in body and soul till the morn- 
ing of the resurrection. 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. igi 

Conclusion. We have thus given a plain account 
of the Apostles' Creed, the most simple, and Christian 
of all creeds, and one which we believe is destined to 
be restored to its ancient place as the generally 
accepted symbol of the Christian church. To hasten 
the day of its general adoption, it behooves all sin- 
cere Christians candidly to examine it, " seriously 
considering what Christianity is, and what the truths 
of the gospel are ; and earnestly beseeching 
Almighty God to accompany with His blessing every 
endeavor for promulgating them to mankind in the 
clearest, plainest, most affecting, and majestic man- 
ner, for the sake of Jesus Christ our blessed Lord 
and Savior." 



CHURCH UNITY. 

Many plans have been proposed, but none of them 
meet with much favor beyond the boundaries of the 
several churches issuing them. 

Thus, the Roman Catholics make submission to 
the Roman Bishop an essential condition ; Anglicans, 
acceptance of the historic Episcopate ; Lutherans, 
consubstantiation. Protestants will not concede 
ecclesiastical authority to the Bishop, or Church, of 
Rome. The Historic Episcopate tendered by Angli- 
cans might be accepted, were it not burdened with 
the High Church claim of an absolute, unbroken 
Apostolic succession, without which there is, and 
can be, no valid ministry, or church. 

Evidently the time for a corporate union of the 
Protestant churches with each other, and then of 
these with the Greek and Roman churches, is not 
yet. Protestant churches have proved their right to 
be reckoned as integral parts of the Christian host, 
actually occupying and tilling portions of " the field 
which the Lord has blessed." "The field is the 
world," but it will never be cultivated in common by 
Christians, till mutual concessions become the rule. 

In the new order, the Anglo-Saxon race will claim 
and keep the prominence to which it is entitled by 



EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY. I93 

its relative influence in Christendom. In other 
words, the relation of the Anglo Saxon race to 
Christendom, must correspond to, and equal, that of 
the Greek and Latin races in the early Church, and 
for the same reason. 

The growth and gradual ascendancy of the Roman 
Church, is by no means so mysterious as many seem 
to suppose. The city of Rome had long been looked 
up to as the capital of the world. What wonder, 
then, that she should aspire to be considered and 
called "Mother and Mistress of Churches," or that 
this claim should have been so generally conceded. 

To-day, Rome and Italy have fallen far behind 
England, Germany, and the United States; and the 
relative greatness of these latter countries increases 
steadily. As to papal infallibility, the more it is as- 
serted, the more it is, and will be, resisted, not only 
by other churches, but by Roman Catholic civil 
rulers. 

For similar reasons, sacerdotalism must cease in 
the Reformed Churches, for, as the great Bishop 
Lightfoot, writing on I Cor. 12, and Eph. 4, said : 
"There is an entire silence about priestly functions. 
For the most exalted office in the Church, the high- 
est gift of the Spirit conveyed no sacerdotal right 
which was not enjoyed by the humblest member of 
the Christian community." 




Are 
You 
Interested 



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That the Protestant Churches of 
Washington shall have a 
voice in the affairs of our 
city which shall be for the 
good of all. 

That it shall be the business of 
our Federation to stand for 
the Church when all kinds 
of agencies would supplant 
her in the community life. 

That public officials, representa- 
tives of various organiza- 
tions, ministers and lay- 
men, shall have a place 
where they can obtain 
ready answers to questions 
concerning all the churches. 

That the Church shall co-operate 
in doing any work which is 
the common duty of all. 

That your Church shall be led to 
help other Churches in a 
ministry to the sixty-three 
homes, hospitals and insti- 
tutions of Washington 
where there are thousands 
who are morally and re- 
ligiously needy. 



That your Church shall have 
some part in the care of 
Protestant boys and girls 
who come from the Juve- 
nile Court. 

That we shall develop Daily 
Vacation and Week -Day 
Bible Schools in Washing- 
ton. 

That all kinds of Evangelistic 
agencies shall be used to 
challenge and develop the 
spiritual life of our city. 

That Church Comity shall be so 
established that we shall 
not over- lap in our Church 
work or over-look any part 
of the city. 

If you are interested in these 
and many other vital* ways of 
co-operation in Protestantism in 
Washington, will you help us by 
your interest and contribution. 



Washington Federation of Churches 

300-301 Bond Building 
Washington, D. C. 




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